A cyclic reference was encountered during evaluation.

[kevnotec]

A classic error is occurring in Power BI Desktop.

The first time I do a full refresh after opening a .pbix file I get an error on one table:

A cyclic reference was encountered during evaluation.

And the other tables will then fail.   All subsequent refreshes work OK.

The table on which the error occurs is different each time, and appears random.

The work-around is to disable parallel loading of tables, but this significantly increases the refresh time beyond acceptable limits.

We're using a custom API connector, so another work-around is to Clear Permissions in the Data source settings before the initial refresh - but obviously you then need to enter you API credentials again, which doesn't save any time!

This is still happening in the current version 2.68.5432.761 64-bit, and certainly in a few versions before that.

[v-yulgu-msft]

Hi @kevnotec ,

Did you install Power BI desktop from Microsoft Store or from Web download page? Could you try the other one?

Does clearing cache for the file in desktop work?

If such an error persists, I would suggest you create a support ticket for further analysis.

Best regards,

Yuliana Gu

[kevnotec]

Hi Yuliana,

We're using the web download - the only one our organisation supports.

By clearing the cache, as well as the API credentials and saving as a .pbit, does seem to resolve (if not merely circumvent) the issue.  It still occurs if I don't clear the cache before saving - even in the latest update 2.68.5432.841.

I'm afraid we don't have a pro licence to raise a full support ticket 😞

Kevin

[Anonymous]

Hi All,

I have the same issue running 2.68.5432.841 64-bit (April, 2019).

The report refreshes well since updating to the April 2019 release for nearly a year.

Now it randomly fails with " A cyclic reference was encountered...."

The related table is a "composition" of four appended tables - maybe this is a hint.

Trace:

ObjectCacheSessions/Data/CacheStats/Size {"Start":"2019-04-23T23:00:14.0576854Z","Action":"ObjectCacheSessions/Data/CacheStats/Size","entryCount":"1","totalSize":"24","ProductVersion":"2.68.5432.841 (19.04)","ActivityId":"00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000","Process":"Microsoft.Mashup.Container.NetFX45","Pid":9912,"Tid":1,"Duration":"00:00:00.0001329"}
ObjectCacheSessions/Data/CacheStats/Access {"Start":"2019-04-23T23:00:14.0585205Z","Action":"ObjectCacheSessions/Data/CacheStats/Access","hits":"0","requests":"1","hitrate":"0","ProductVersion":"2.68.5432.841 (19.04)","ActivityId":"00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000","Process":"Microsoft.Mashup.Container.NetFX45","Pid":9912,"Tid":1,"Duration":"00:00:00.0000466"}
SimpleDocumentEvaluator/GetResult/Compile {"Start":"2019-04-23T23:00:14.1062597Z","Action":"SimpleDocumentEvaluator/GetResult/Compile","HostProcessId":"12676","ProductVersion":"2.68.5432.841 (19.04)","ActivityId":"a47012a8-bdb7-42a9-b6d0-848525e00527","Process":"Microsoft.Mashup.Container.NetFX45","Pid":9912,"Tid":1,"Duration":"00:00:00.2546718"}
SimpleDocumentEvaluator/GetResult/Evaluate {"Start":"2019-04-23T23:00:14.3609713Z","Action":"SimpleDocumentEvaluator/GetResult/Evaluate","HostProcessId":"12676","ProductVersion":"2.68.5432.841 (19.04)","ActivityId":"a47012a8-bdb7-42a9-b6d0-848525e00527","Process":"Microsoft.Mashup.Container.NetFX45","Pid":9912,"Tid":1,"Duration":"00:00:00.5384816"}
SimpleDocumentEvaluator/GetResult<IPreviewValueSource> {"Start":"2019-04-23T23:00:14.1015483Z","Action":"SimpleDocumentEvaluator/GetResult<IPreviewValueSource>","HostProcessId":"12676","Exception":"Exception:\r\nExceptionType: Microsoft.Mashup.Engine1.Runtime.ValueException, Microsoft.MashupEngine, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35\r\nMessage: [Expression.Error] A cyclic reference was encountered during evaluation.\r\nStackTrace:\n at Microsoft.Mashup.Evaluator.Interface.EvaluationResult2`1.get_Result()\r\n at Microsoft.Mashup.Evaluator.SimpleDocumentEvaluator.<>c__DisplayClass3_0.<BeginGetResult>b__0(EvaluationResult2`1 result)\r\n\r\nDetail: null\r\n\r\n","ProductVersion":"2.68.5432.841 (19.04)","ActivityId":"a47012a8-bdb7-42a9-b6d0-848525e00527","Process":"Microsoft.Mashup.Container.NetFX45","Pid":9912,"Tid":1,"Duration":"00:00:00.8383075"}

[kevnotec]

This occaisonally manifests itself with the error: 'A local file header is corrupt' - even though the connections are all to an API - not a file.

Again, it always works the second time by hitting 'Refresh'.