Duplicate measure cannot be deleted

jaap_olsthoorn · ‎10-13-2022

Hi there! I think I found a bug.

When you create a measure in a thin report file that uses a powerBI file as its data model, save it, and then add a measure with the same name to the data model powerBI file and upload, you get a warning saying there is a duplicate measure in your report (correct!), but when you try to delete it, you get an error.

Steps to reproduce:
Create a powerBI file (data model) with some data in it, upload to service
Create another PowerBI file (Thin) and connect to the first powerBI file on the service.
Create a measure in the Thin file, save.
Now create the same measure in the data model file, save and upload.
Open the thin file, you will see an error icon next to the thin file measure saying a measure with the same name already exists.
Now try to click on the hamburger menu icon. An Error is shown.

Hope you can fix it so it becomes easier to delete these duplicate measures!

Jaap

Anonymous · ‎10-13-2022

Hi @jaap_olsthoorn ,

I don't quite understand what you mean. It doesn't seem to reproduce your problem successfully
Do you use the same name for the first file and the second file?
What connection mode did you use when you used the second file to connect to the first file?
What is your final requirement? Create two reports that contain the same measure?

Best Regards,
Community Support Team _ Caitlyn

Anonymous · ‎10-13-2022

Hi @jaap_olsthoorn ,

I don't quite understand what you mean. It doesn't seem to reproduce your problem successfully
Do you use the same name for the first file and the second file?
What connection mode did you use when you used the second file to connect to the first file?
What is your final requirement? Create two reports that contain the same measure?

Best Regards,
Community Support Team _ Caitlyn

jaap_olsthoorn · ‎10-14-2022

Hey Caitlyn!

My requirement: be able to delete measures in thin_reports(reports with no data model of their own, but connecting to a data model in the cloud) that I recreated in my data_model reports. The requirement is not to have duplicate measures, that's the problem I try to solve :).

So the reports have different names, let's call report 1 data_model.pbix and report 2 thin_report.pbix.

data_model uses sql server to get the data, using import mode.

thin_report uses the "powerBI datasets" connector to connect to data_model.pbix in the cloud.

Let's say that at first, I thought My measure new_measure should live in the thin_report.pbix, because I will only use it for this report, and not for others. Later on, it turns out that I need new_measure in multiple reports, so it is better to add it it the data_model.pbix.

However, when I do, I will have 2 versions of the measure, one in data_model.pbix and one in thin_report.pbix. If I now open thin_report.pbix, I will see the same measure twice, one of which will say "this measure is duplicated". Great! The error message makes sense. However, when I now want to delete the new_measure wit hthe error in the thin_report.pbix, it won't let me, and give me an error instead.

The only way of solving this that I found, is to delete new_measure in the data_model.pbix, upload, then refresh thin_report.pbix so there is only 1 version of new_measure. Then we delete this one as well. Finally, we recreate new_measure in the data_model.pbix only. Would be a lot better if we could just delete the duplicate new_measure in the Thin_report.pbix, but we get an error instead.

Gadik · ‎02-01-2023

I can confirm that we are having similar issue.

CoalesceIsMore · ‎03-08-2023

Same issue here. Using this version:

Microsoft Power BI Desktop (Optimized for Power BI Report Server - May 2022)

When trying to delete the duplicate, there is no message at all. It just doesn't happen. In some cases it does actually work, but it's not consistent. More often than not, it doesn't. Even within the same pbix file, I was able to delete one but not another.

RyanBarkley · ‎06-01-2023

I was having the same issue and was able to find a resolution. Power BI desktop was giving me an error if I click on the elipses or right clicked on the measure. Additionally, it does not show you the formula bar when you click on it, so it seems like the measure is untouchable. BUT... If you double click on the measure in the Data pane, you can give it a new name. Once it has a new name, you can edit the measure or delete it without any issues. I hope this works for you as well.

Anonymous · ‎12-05-2023

Thanks @RyanBarkley I was having the same problem and the double-click trick worked. In fact, I didn't even have to delete the duplicate measures from the report, they just disappeared once renamed.

Definitely voted for a real fix to this - would be nice if this were handled a bit more elegantly. I've got a big project ahead of me to migrate a lot of report-based measures into the main dataset.

BenT · ‎07-26-2024

thanks for the double-click tricks guys, working perfectly

kondado · ‎07-29-2024

Thank you @RyanBarkley for that workaround!! I can confirm this issue is still present as of 29/07/2024 in the latest Power BI Desktop Version. The thread was created by the OP on 13/10/2022. Microsoft, maybe fix this???

hholthuis · ‎02-20-2025

Just confirming this issue is still alive as of feb 2025.
The workaround from @RyanBarkley works great. Though the measure doesn't immediately disappear like anonymous suggests. It does get alphabetically resorted so that might give you the impression that is is gone. You still need to remove the renamed measure.