Unable to Connect to Updated Data Warehouse in Power BI Desktop

[Emmett]

Hello Power BI Community,

I'm experiencing an issue where I can no longer connect to our data warehouse (DW)using Power BI Desktop after the DW was updated. Here is the situation:

- **Data Source**: (Microsoft Fabric DW)
- **Authentication Method**: (Microsoft)
- **Symptoms**:
- When I open my existing .pbix file (which was previously working) and try to refresh or edit queries in the Power Query Editor, I receive an error indicating the data warehouse is not accessible or the connection has failed.
- I’ve confirmed that the DW was recently updated (e.g., schema changes, and recreated with the same name in the same worspace).

- **Error Message**  ( No messages but when I connected it does not show up the data)

Thank you in advance for your assistance!

[Emmett · Accepted solution]

Solution Found — Live Connection to Old Data Warehouse Removed via PowerShell

Hi everyone,

I was able to resolve this issue, and I wanted to share the solution in case it helps others encountering the same problem.

Problem Recap: After our Microsoft Fabric Data Warehouse was updated/recreated with the same name, my Power BI Desktop report stopped working. The .pbix file couldn't connect to the warehouse anymore — no data showed up, and refreshing/editing queries failed silently.

Root Cause: Power BI was still using a live connection to the old (now non-existent) warehouse. Even though the name and workspace hadn’t changed, the internal connection metadata in the .pbix was outdated.

How I Fixed It: I used a PowerShell script to remove the live connection metadata from the .pbix file. Here's what I did:

1. I followed this guide:
   Hot Swap Power BI Report Connections – PowerBI.tips

2. Ran the provided PowerShell script, which:

   • Prompts you to select your .pbix file.

   • Unzips it and removes internal files: Connections and SecurityBindings.

   • Repackages the .pbix and opens it.

3. When reopened in Power BI Desktop, all visuals were broken (expected), but I was able to reconnect to the new DW.

4. Because the structure was the same, all visuals automatically repopulated once the new connection was set.

 Note: This script directly modifies your .pbix, so make sure to back up the file before running it. This method is not officially supported by Microsoft.

Hope this helps someone else avoid a few hours of frustration!

— Emmett

[v-sathmakuri]

Hi @Emmett ,

Thank you for reaching out to Microsoft Fabric Community.

May I ask if you have resolved this issue? If so, please mark the helpful reply and accept it as the solution. This will be helpful for other community members who have similar problems to solve it faster.

Thank you.

[Emmett]

Hi Jing, 

Thanks for that. 

When I click on Data souce settings, it gives me list of databases and I select the one that i want to connect then press connect but still it does not show up as in like no error messages or any reactions. it is just weird. the pop-up  disappears and I cannot see the data even tho it says it is connected below.

[Anonymous]

With Live Connect, Power BI Desktop connects to the default semantic model of the DW. One possible cause is that no tables haven been added to the default semantic model of the new DW. 

After you create a DW in Fabric, it creates a default semantic model automatically. However it won't add tables into the semantic model automatically. So you need to either manually pick tables and views to be added to the default semantic model, or manually enable the Sync the default Power BI semantic model setting for the Warehouse. 

I think that's probably why you don't see any tables and data. Please navigate to Fabric to check the semantic model. You might need to recreate relationships there.

For how to access and edit the default semantic model of DW, please read the following documentation: Default Power BI semantic models - Microsoft Fabric | Microsoft Learn

Best Regards,
Jing

[Anonymous]

Hi @Emmett 

If you deleted the old DW and recreated a new one with the same name in the same workspace, the new DW will have a new unique item ID. When their item IDs are different, it means they are two different items although they share the same name. 

Not sure how you connected to the DW. If you connected to the DW's model with Live Connect, you can expand Transform data button in Home ribbon and choose Data source settings. In the pop-up window, you can select another DW. If you can access the new DW, it should display there. 

If you connected to the DW's SQL Endpoint, you can navigate to Fabric Service, open the new DW and copy its SQL Connection String. Then navigate back to Power BI Desktop, open Data source settings, edit the data source to use the new connection string. 

Meanwhile, ensure that you have sufficient permission to access the new DW. 

Hope this would be helpful. 

Best Regards,
Jing
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