Auto Refresh not available in my Power BI semantic model

[DanPell]

Hi everyone

I'm having trouble setting up an auto refresh in PBI Desktop as the option is not showing up in the Visualisations section in my semantic model.

I did some research and discovered that the data connection needs to be a DirectQuery source.  The majority of my data in my semantic model is connected to an SAP database via ODBC whilst I do have other data sourced from Excel.  Both data sources appear to be suitable connectors from what I can tell.

Appreciate any help/guidance please? Thanks

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Hi @DanPell 

Based on my test, the Page refresh feature only appears when you have at least one table in DirectQuery mode in the report.  

The Auto page refresh feature is only available for DirectQuery sources and some Live connection sources. It isn't supported for Import. However ODBC and Excel data sources in Power BI only support Import, so you don't see this feature when connecting to these data sources. 

For more information and guidance about Auto page refresh feature, you can read Automatic page refresh in Power BI Desktop - Power BI | Microsoft Learn

Let me know if you have any further questions. 

Best Regards,
Jing
If this post helps, please Accept it as Solution to help other members find it. Appreciate your Kudos! 

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Hi @DanPell 

Based on my test, the Page refresh feature only appears when you have at least one table in DirectQuery mode in the report.  

The Auto page refresh feature is only available for DirectQuery sources and some Live connection sources. It isn't supported for Import. However ODBC and Excel data sources in Power BI only support Import, so you don't see this feature when connecting to these data sources. 

For more information and guidance about Auto page refresh feature, you can read Automatic page refresh in Power BI Desktop - Power BI | Microsoft Learn

Let me know if you have any further questions. 

Best Regards,
Jing
If this post helps, please Accept it as Solution to help other members find it. Appreciate your Kudos! 

[DanPell · Accepted solution]

Hey @Anonymous thanks for your response.  Hopefully PBI will change this in future app versions.  Its a bit of a pain to have to manually refresh and publish my report.  If you know of any workarounds to enable an auto refresh that would be great.  Thanks again!

[Anonymous]

Hi @DanPell 

You don't have to experience the pain to manually refresh and publish reports. For reports containing Import mode tables, you can configure scheduled refresh in Power BI Service. If your data sources are on premises, you need to install an on-premises data gateway to act as a bridge between the cloud Power BI Service and the on-premises data sources for data refresh. There are two types of on-premises data gateways, the standard (enterprise) mode is usually more recommended as it supports both DirectQuery and Import while the personal mode only supports Import. You can refer to the Microsoft documentation to learn more:

Configure scheduled refresh - Power BI | Microsoft Learn

On-premises data gateway - Power BI | Microsoft Learn

Additionally, I found a couple of video tutorials that can help you get started with using a gateway to refresh reports in Power BI Service:

• How to Schedule Data Refresh in Power BI Service with Data Gateway by MiTutorials:

  • This video covers the steps to schedule automatic data refresh using the Data Gateway. It includes publishing the report, installing the gateway, managing connections, and setting up the refresh schedule.
• POWER BI Data Gateway set up step by step by LearnDataAnalytics: 
  • This tutorial walks you through setting up an on-premises data gateway to refresh data from local Excel files. It covers downloading and installing the gateway, registering it, and configuring the data source.

Best Regards,
Jing
If this post helps, please Accept it as Solution to help other members find it. Appreciate your Kudos!

[DanPell]

Thanks @Anonymous much appreciated