Unable to Refresh Reports in Power BI Service Using Desktop Data Sources

Hi AvinashSharma 

Check Data Source Credentials in Power BI Service

• Go to your dataset in Power BI Service
• Navigate to Settings > Data source credentials
• Try to edit/re-enter your credentials even if the option appears grayed out
• Sometimes clearing browser cache helps make this option available

Republish with Embedded Credentials

• In Power BI Desktop, go to File > Options and settings > Data source settings
• Edit your data source and change the authentication method
• Try using "Windows" authentication or store credentials in the connection
• Republish the report

There are options to enable refresh without changing the underlying source:

• On-premises Data Gateway

  • Install and configure the On-premises Data Gateway on your machine or server.

  • This gateway acts as a bridge between the Power BI Service and your local/desktop data sources.

  • Once installed, you can configure credentials and enable scheduled refresh in the service.

• Move the data source to the cloud (OneDrive/SharePoint) (minimal change option)

  • If your source is an Excel/CSV file, placing it on OneDrive for Business or SharePoint Online allows Power BI Service to connect directly and auto-refresh whenever the file changes.

  • This avoids installing a gateway, but technically it changes the source path.

• Use Power BI Dataflows or Azure SQL Database (more advanced)

  • You can push your transformations to a dataflow or cloud-hosted database, which makes refresh easier in the service.

Dataflows is what I use in my company and it works really great!

Please let me know if above does work!

Best Regards,

Thanks for sharing your approaches.

I’ve tried the following steps but still facing issues with refreshing reports in Power BI Service:

1. The “Navigate to Settings > Data source credentials” option is grayed out and inaccessible.
2. I attempted to change the Permission settings (Public, Organizational, Private) via “Options and settings > Data source settings”, but unfortunately, that didn’t resolve the issue.

As a last resort, I had to change the data source from Desktop to SharePoint, which I was hoping to avoid.

Thanks Again!

We would like to confirm if our community members answer resolves your query or if you need further help. If you still have any questions or need more support, please feel free to let us know. We are happy to help you.

danextian & sivarajan21 ,Thanks for your prompt response

Thank you for your patience and look forward to hearing from you.
Best Regards,
Prashanth Are
MS Fabric community support

We would like to confirm if our community members answer resolves your query or if you need further help. If you still have any questions or need more support, please feel free to let us know. We are happy to help you.

Thank you for your patience and look forward to hearing from you.
Best Regards,
Prashanth Are
MS Fabric community support

May I ask if you have resolved this issue? If so, Can you please share the resolution steps here. This will be helpful for other community members who have similar problems to solve it faster.
If we don’t hear back, we’ll go ahead and close this thread. For any further discussions or questions, please start a new thread in the Microsoft Fabric Community Forum we’ll be happy to assist.
Thank you for being part of the Microsoft Fabric Community.