not an idea but a bug - why does incremental data refresh time out when published?

[kenmuir71]

I have set up an incremental data refresh, when I publish it to Power BI online it refreshes and times out with the error below. I've followed all the steps, used data folding. teh data is coming from Azure etc. 

Data source error: {"error":{"code":"ModelRefresh_ShortMessage_ProcessingError","pbi.error":{"code":"ModelRefresh_ShortMessage_ProcessingError","parameters":{},"details":[{"code":"Message","detail":{"type":1,"value":"Timeout expired. The timeout period elapsed prior to completion of the operation."}}],"exceptionCulprit":1}}}
Cluster URI: WABI-UK-SOUTH-redirect.analysis.windows.net
Activity ID: 8fdd6fd4-37a8-4fe7-8f82-702c5893ed38
Request ID: a70127a7-e00b-4960-b2dd-f14bd79c1378
Time: 2022-06-23 14:19:21Z

As an aside with global warming etc surely it makes sense to make incremetal refresh easy (like any other BI software available nowadays). why do you make it so difficult? Is it an upsell thing? Rant over.

[Anonymous]

Hi @kenmuir71 ,

Power Bi Service has a 2 hours timeout limitation. Your data and transformations must refresh in that timeline. Sometimes the databases can't resolve complex queries in short time (adding resources might help), and other times the model size is too big for it. If your query is fast, then try downsizing techniques for the Power Bi data model. You can check details of it with DAX studio with some youtube videos helping there.

If you still have more than 2 hours with the smallest way of the model and the database runing fast, then you have to consider your model too big for Power Bi and start thinking in alternatives like Power Bi Aggregations composite or Analysis Services.

You may refer to the original post PowerBI incremental refresh - 1st refresh timeout 

Best Regards,
Community Support Team _ Caitlyn