Scheduled Data Refresh in Desktop with SQL Server 2016

[jkraush1]

I am attempting to set up a routine scheduled data refresh in PowerBI desktop but I am having some difficulty figuring out how to do that. All the tutorials seems to be for normal PowerBI and not desktop. Is it possible to set up a scheduled data refresh in desktop from a SQL Server 2016 database, and if so how would I do that?

[mim · Accepted solution]

no, it is not possible in PowerBI desktop, but if all your data is in SQL Server, maybe go with direct Query and you will always have the lastest Data.

[jkraush1]

Understood, that is frustrating but automatically updating data even if not on a schedule works fine also.

As a secondary question then: is it possible to support Direct Query while accessing data from two different databases (on the same server)? I am trying to get automatically updating data to make updating reports which draw from two distinct databases, and PowerBI doesn't seem to be letting me utilize Direct Query

[v-ljerr-msft]

Hi @jkraush1,

---

---

As a secondary question then: is it possible to support Direct Query while accessing data from two different databases (on the same server)? I am trying to get automatically updating data to make updating reports which draw from two distinct databases, and PowerBI doesn't seem to be letting me utilize Direct Query

This is currently a limitation to use DirectQuery in Power BI: All tables must come from a single database. 

For more details about limitations of DirectQuery, you can refer to this article.

Regards