When refreshing data, my data disappears

[dnaman]

Hi All,

Hopefully this is a simple question. I have a PBIX file that i created, with an Excel (.xls) file as my data source (from an external system).

I created a couple reports/dashboards using the original file, and all is well.

Now, when i refresh my source file (basically copying and pasting the data from one file to another), and then hit 'Refresh' in PBI Desktop, my data table shows no data

On the refresh screen, it should 1800+ rows loaded to the model (from Sheet1$), but when i go to the Data, the table is empty (0 rows).

This has worked before but the only thing that might have changed is that there are a few new measures/columns manually added to the table in PBI.

So, for example, the Excel file has 15 columns, and the PBI table has 20 columns (5 additional calculated columns/measures).

Is this the reason my PBI is breaking? I need to be able to refresh my original source data once a month, and then refresh the PBIX so i can publish to the users, but now i'm getting empty rows!

Any help is appreciated, thanks in advance

[v-xjiin-msft · Accepted solution]

Hi @dnaman,

In your scenario, first did you get any error message when you refresh your data? And did you change the data type of the columns in your data source file? As you should know that once you imported the data into Power BI, it will generate corresponding data types for the columns automatically. And if you have changed the source file and refresh the source, Power BI will not change the data type automatically. That's may be the issue.

By the way, if you can share us your original source file and the updated one with One Drive or Google Drive. We can make some tests and provide more proper suggestions.

Thanks,
Xi Jin.

[dnaman]

Thanks i basically just used my original file, and copied and pasted the data as values, to keep the original formatting of the original file and it worked

[Charlemagne]

I also lost my data model twice before I investigated further, and found the post below:

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/ie/en-US/64310a51-79fa-4437-8035-7c034f72a95b/powerpivot...

In short, the issue goes back to October 2015.  The data model is lost when you close Excel and save via the dialog box (rather than save before closing the program).  It would be nice to have a prompt fix to this issue, since I am avoiding using Power Pivot / the Data Model for that reason as I don't want to lose my work again.