Edit PBIX files (especially data source settings) without needing Power BI application

[jannable]

When setting up a Tabular data model and a Power BI environment in a proof of concept stage, we created perspectives and built some dashboards on them. Later, we realized that the model would be easier to understand for users if it was renamed to "All" instead of "Model" since it contains all the fields from all the perspectives.

However, when making that change, it broke all the dashboards and we received an endless loop of errors immediately upon opening the Power BI dashboard. We couldn't reach the data source settings in order to tell the dashboard to use the "All" name instead of the "Model" name. We tried opening up the Power BI pbix file in notepad but it's compiled and not in a human-readable format. We were reluctant to start converting HEX bytes and manipulating the file that way. Therefore, we renamed the model back to "Model" but we are unhappy with the experience and limitation.

We'd like the data source settings (at the very least) to be editable directly without needing to open the file with the Power BI app. In fact, we'd like to be able to edit anything in the pbix file without needing to use the Power BI app. This is something we've come to really like about Tableau workbooks and the ability has helped us out of a jam a number of times.

[v-qiuyu-msft]

Hi @jannable, 

We do not recommend to remove or edit the files manually. It's better to use Power BI desktop to modify pbix file.

If you indeed want to modify the pbix file without Power BI desktop, you can rename file extension from pbix to zip, then open the folder to find Connections file, open it in Notepad, you can see connection information to SSAS model. You can modify it then save the file. Rename zip back to the pbix file. Please back up your pbix file before changing file extension. 

Best Regards,
Qiuyun Yu