Personal Gateway Short Message publishing error

I believe, This is a classic problem that occurs when the Power BI Semantic Model (Dataset) metadata in the Power BI Service gets corrupted or contains an internal ID that points to a non-existent source, which in this case is the deleted Fabric item (Data Warehouse).

The user's follow-up: "As the item was deleted from fabric, not able to update the dataset untill it gets published again. Due to this error not able to publish. Is there any workaround to get this published."

They are stuck in a loop:

1. The PBIX file has stale/broken metadata pointing to the old Fabric item.

2. Publishing from Desktop fails because the Service tries to match the new semantic model with the old, broken one (even after deleting and trying to republish with the same name).

3. They can't update the connection in the Service because the publishing failed.

Here is the most likely workaround to break the publishing loop, incorporating the best advice from the initial responses:

✅ Workaround: Force a New Semantic Model ID

The core issue is that when you delete and try to republish with the same name, the Power BI Service often tries to reuse or update the metadata of the old, broken item, which still contains the stale Fabric connection ID, thus failing with the PersonalGateway_ShortMessage_PublishingError.

The workaround is to force the Service to treat the new publish as a completely new item, bypassing the broken metadata.

Step 1: Force a New Connection and Clear Cache (Desktop)

This step ensures the PBIX file itself has the freshest possible connection information.

1. Open Power BI Desktop with your report.

2. Go to File > Options and settings > Options > Data Load.

3. Under Data Cache Management Options, click Clear Cache.

4. Go to File > Options and settings > Data Source Settings. Select the connection to the Fabric Data Warehouse and click Clear Permissions.

5. Critically: Reconnect the Model. Go to Home > Transform data > Data source settings.

   • Find the connection to the Fabric Data Warehouse.

   • Click Change Source... and re-paste the connection string or re-select the Fabric Data Warehouse from the Data Hub.

   • Ensure the connection is successful and the tables are loading.

Step 2: Publish with a NEW NAME (The Key Workaround)

This is the most critical part to break the publishing loop.

1. In Power BI Desktop, click Publish.

2. When the publish window appears, do NOT use the existing name.

3. Publish the report with a slightly different name (e.g., Report_Name_V2 or Report_Name_New).

   • This forces the Power BI Service to create a brand-new Semantic Model (Dataset) with a fresh, valid internal ID and connection metadata.

4. The publish should now succeed.

Step 3: Clean Up and Re-map

1. Check the Dev Workspace: You should now have two semantic models:

   • The old, failing one (e.g., Report_Name).

   • The new, working one (e.g., Report_Name_V2).

2. Delete the Old Failing Item: Manually delete the original, broken semantic model (Report_Name) from the Dev workspace in the Power BI Service.

3. Rename the New Item: Rename the new, working semantic model (Report_Name_V2) back to the original name (Report_Name).

4. Re-map Deployment Pipeline: Go back to your Deployment Pipeline settings, unlink the old item, and map the now-working, renamed semantic model (Report_Name) to the pipeline.

This process ensures that the Service and the PBIX file both have a new, clean connection that is free of the stale metadata causing the Personal Gateway Short Message publishing error.