Publishing power BI broken when OneDrive refresh is toggled on

[sebadb9]

Publishing a power BI desktop file to power BI service, in an attempt to overwrite an existing dataset/report doesn't work whenever you might have switched on the toggle of OneDrive refresh.

Turning of the toggle doesn't solve the issue.

Reported issues, claimed to be resolved by the product team, continue to cause big issues: Cannot disable OneDrive refresh - Microsoft Power BI Community. This result in a status where it is impossible to adjust a dataset/report. (Even though Microsoft is pushing towards full parity of power BI desktop into the cloud, currently we can't fully work in the browser as not all functionality of power BI desktop has been added in the browser.)

The only unacceptable workaround appears to delete your dataset/report in the service and publish a new one.

Let me elaborate some of the consequences of deleting the dataset/report:

• need to re-pin visuals to dashboards
• RLS/OLS needs to be reconfigured
• related reports/datasets are broken (hybrid reports, reports on the same datasets, etc.)
• all reports directly or indirectly related to this dataset that are pinned in Microsoft Teams are broken
• Deep Links (with filters in the URL) to every report related directly/indirectly to this dataset are broken
• all people's bookmarks to related reports/datasets are broken
• integrations of power BI reports in PowerApps are broken
• integration in Excel Custom data types are broken (featured tables)
• integration of power BI in Power Automate are broken, automation of processes thus are broken
• all external systems sending API requests to that dataset are broken
• metrics are broken
• report usage metrics are gone
• power BI comments are gone
• integration with Synapse Analytics is broken
• e-mail subscriptions on the reports are broken
• alerts on Card/Gauge visual are broken
• everything else I forgot about is broken!

 Let it be very clear: the impact of deleting just a simple report/dataset can be huge. Huge work in fixing stuff, huge in disruption for the business with a many power BI users. Currently we're not updating our power BI reports and datasets, which also is impacting our business operations!

All power BI users are facing this issue and many are complaining about it:

https://community.powerbi.com/t5/Service/Couldn-t-publish-to-power-BI-already-exists-and-is-set-up-w...

https://community.powerbi.com/t5/Developer/Publish-of-update-fails-with-error-about-cloud-refresh/m-...

https://community.powerbi.com/t5/Service/Cannot-quot-overwrite-quot-You-already-have-a-dataset-named...

https://community.powerbi.com/t5/Developer/Publish-of-update-fails-with-error-about-cloud-refresh/m-...

The product team should fix this and have admins the possibility of disabling OneDrive refresh all together for the entire tenant. Simply moving one .pbix file in SharePoint (seeming unharmful) can trigger unrepairable/irreversible consequences. 

I have raised a support ticket for this issue, but power BI support has been unable to solve this open ticket for more than 5 days.

Please vote, and raise awareness of this BUG. This must be fixed!

[Anonymous]

Same with us sync justs stopped working recently across all files 20+ PBIXs (Maybe last 2-3 weeks) no option to publish from either onedrive or desktop just creates a new file.cannot overwrite!  Only option to manually delete and repush but now people around org subscribed to reports ,have bookmarks etc. What can we do?!!

[karo]

@Anonymous Have you tried to submit Support Ticket to Microsoft? You can also ask your Power BI Admin about Tenant Settings, maybe some settings have been changed.

[BTBT]

Agree this is a horrible issue that needs to be resolved ASAP. It can not be by design since it is a fatal flaw in how the service should work from both a technical and logical perspectives and is only triggered by irrelevant actions.

If going to continue to say it's by design, you must provide guidance on how updates can be made with out throwing all prior work in the trash and starting again.

[chrisukbates]

Same story.  I manage a lot of Power BI Apps and this issue is actively preventing the improvement and fixing of these apps.  The App update functionality that has worked well for years and is now completely broken. Please help to fix asap.

[eudesmcf]

Hi @sebadb9 any news on this issues?

[EnriquePeña]

it's happening again? We are having problems publishing reports to workspaces since 20241014. What's going on?

[jpierzchala]

One of the recent changes in PowerBI Service makes it impossible to git sync, if the OneDrive synced source PBIX file is deleted. So when this is the case you have no option to edit the model in any way. You can't edith through git, you can't republish. Give us the option to remove this damned "This file was imported from the following location"

[ajohns3]

At the moment, this issue means that using the "Import from Onedrive/Sharepoint" feature is dangerous, because it can result in a complete inability to update semantic models if the cloud .pbix file they are sourced from is deleted. This should be flagged to users when they use this feature. The issue could be resolved if it was possible to manually change the onedrive file that a semantic model points to.

[IronNige]

Also encountering this isse - the sharepoint refresh is failing (ie changes ive made to the PBIX arent reflected in my workspace

Wont allow me to publish via desktop - because 'Online refresh is configured' I need to update my semantic model and my only option is to delete from the entire deployment pipeline and republish - frustrating!

Any update on this?

[BitKing123]

I now also run into this issue. It really is crazy that you cannot change the location of a report in onedrive without re-publishing as a new report, thereby breaking deployment pipelines, user bookmarks, etc. The import from onedrive/sharepoint feature is therefore very, very dangerous. You will have to use a location that can never be changed, or accept concequences in PBI service. It is really striking that this issue is open since almost 2 years now.... Please MS fix this!