Poor performance on download of PBIX files

[Anonymous]

The download of PBIX files is too slow for a functional workflow.

We have dedicated Premium P1 capacity. 

We have datasets created from PBI dataflows.

Since Datasets must be created / Edits from PowerBI desktop, the file needs to be download in order to be editted or viewed.

A 145Mb files takes 1.5hours to download.  We're on a corporate fiberoptic pipe. 

So the performance lag solely appears to be bound by the Power BI web application.

Why does it take sooo long to download a file? 

What is happening behind the scenes? 

If it's solely transfer speed, you should be indicating file size (which you do not display and percentage to completion).

If you're doing something else behind the scenes before the actual file download begins, which is my guess...what are you doing and why is it taking so long? 

[v-qiuyu-msft]

Hi @Anonymous, 

Please download the report in another network environment to see if it takes long time as well. If it is, I would suggest you create a support ticket to get help. 

Best Regards,
Qiuyun Yu 

[jeffshieldsdev]

Does the downloading into your browser take this long, or total time including the prep?  How much time is spent preping and how much actually downloading?

[Anonymous]

@jeffshieldsdev, that time is from the moment I click download .pbix file, to the moment I see the file has downloaded. 

[jeffshieldsdev]

OK, so how long until the actual download starts?  When I click Download .pbix I see "Exporting to Power BI Desktop" for a few seconds/minutes until the actual download starts.  Is the majority of time spent in the "exporting" stage or "downloading" stage?

EDIT: in any case, submitting a support ticket is probably the only way to troubleshoot this.

[Anonymous]

@jeffshieldsdev, it's a dataset, I click "download .pbix" file then all I see is this until it's downloaded.  No other messages or indications of behind the scenes states or processes.  It's a blackbox

[jeffshieldsdev]

Yes, this is all you see while Exporting...while Downloading a file you should see a progress indicator in your web browser.

Do you see Export for 1.5 hours?  Does the 145MB file download instantly then, or does that take some time?

[Anonymous]

we're miscommunicating somehow... When I click "download .pbix". This is the first and only message that appears until the file is in my downloads directory.  There are no other indicators, status, messages, or anything else on the Power BI side.  Nothing.  That one message only.  And that one message will be there for 1.5 hours until my file appears in my downloads folder.  

[jeffshieldsdev]

Submit a support ticket on this issue 🙂