Forum Discussion
dataset refresh
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.
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.
If my response resolved your query, kindly mark it as the Accepted Solution to assist others. Additionally, I would be grateful for a 'Kudos' if you found my response helpful.
This response was assisted by AI for translation and formatting purposes.
4 Replies
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.
If my response resolved your query, kindly mark it as the Accepted Solution to assist others. Additionally, I would be grateful for a 'Kudos' if you found my response helpful.
This response was assisted by AI for translation and formatting purposes.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.
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.
