dataset refresh

[DanielMay]

Hello. I have a PowerBI report on PowerBI desktop that is reading an excel file, the excel file gets rewritten hourly (ish, it's not a scheduled thing, have to wait for someone to input new data in a MS Access database) The excel file is located in a common drive, I can manual refresh but I'd like this to auto update when the excel file is overwritten.

I tried a Power Automate flow on Power Automate Online, but it doesn't seem to be refreshing the desktop dataset, even the version I created on PowerBI web isn't updating despite the PA flow linking directly to it.

I have added a daily refresh on the semantic model on PowerBI web, but this won't update the document frequently enough.

Any help will be appreciated.

[v-sshirivolu]

Hi @DanielMay  ,
Thank you for reaching out to Microsoft Fabric Community Forum.
To set up automatic refresh for an Excel file on a shared network drive in Power BI:

Publish Report: Create your report in Power BI Desktop and publish it to the Power BI Service.

Set Up Gateway: Install the On-Premises Data Gateway on a computer that can access the shared drive and configure it in Power BI Service with the right credentials.

Schedule Refresh: In Power BI Service, schedule refreshes for your dataset (up to 8 times per day with Power BI Pro).

Other Options:

Move the Excel file to OneDrive or SharePoint for more frequent refreshes without needing a gateway.

Use Power Automate with the Power BI REST API for event-driven refreshes (still limited to 8 per day for Pro).

Upgrade to Power BI Premium for up to 48 refreshes per day (see pricing).

Make sure: The file path stays the same, the gateway is running, and authentication is set up correctly.

For API information, refer to Power BI REST API.

[DanielMay]

Hello, Thank you for this answer. Have followed this so far so good but I'm confused with the fact there is nowhere to see gateway on PowerBI desktop, I may well be blind but I'm sure I've gone through every setting, option with no luck.

My other question will be, if this is in a teams file, can I have Power Automate read the teams file for when the file is overwritten in order to refresh dataset? Answer can be for both desktop and web service. Can a file be read by PowerBI from Teams?

Many thanks for all help so far.

[burakkaragoz · Accepted solution]

Hi @DanielMay ,

That Pro license limit is true (8 refreshes max per day), but you've got bigger issues to solve first.

Your main problem: Power BI Desktop can't auto-refresh from file changes. It's a desktop app - when you close it, refreshes stop. The scheduled refresh only works for datasets published to the Power BI Service.

Here's what actually works:

Publish to Power BI Service first:

• Publish your Desktop report to the service
• Set up the data gateway if your Excel file is on a local/network drive
• Then scheduled refresh will work (up to 8x daily with Pro)

For more frequent updates:

• Power Automate approach: Your flow needs to call the Power BI REST API to trigger dataset refresh, not just detect file changes
• OneDrive/SharePoint: Move your Excel file there, connect Power BI to that location - updates happen faster
• Power BI Premium: Gets you more refresh slots and supports real-time scenarios

Alternative approach: Instead of waiting for Excel updates, have your Access database write directly to a SQL database or SharePoint list. Power BI handles those sources much better than file-based refreshes.

Quick test: Can you access your Excel file from Power BI Service when you test the connection? If not, you definitely need a gateway setup first.

The Power Automate flow won't help Desktop refresh at all - it only works with published datasets in the service.

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[Anonymous]

As far as I know, with a Power BI Pro license you can set the schedule to max 8 times a day. For more refreshes you need to upgrade to another license I think. I don't know any workarounds to achieve.