Forum Discussion
Calculation group issue PBIRS
Hi NiklasR ,
Calculation groups are a powerful feature introduced in recent updates, but they rely on a model capability (composite models with mixed storage modes) that PBIRS does not yet support.
Once you add a calculation group, it implicitly switches your model to a composite one (since calculation groups require Import mode), which makes it incompatible with the current PBIRS engine even though the UI allows you to add them without any warning. This leads to the very problem you experienced: the file becomes unreadable in PBIRS and Power BI Desktop RS, effectively locking you out of your own report.
Ideally, the UI should restrict or at least warn users when they attempt to add features like calculation groups in a DirectQuery-only model targeted for PBIRS, but as of now, this safeguard doesn't exist. Until Microsoft addresses this gap, the best workaround is to either avoid using calculation groups in PBIRS-bound reports or maintain version-controlled backups of your .pbix files before enabling new features.
This way, you can recover quickly without losing significant development work. You're not alone in this hopefully this gets addressed in a future update with either support for composite models in PBIRS or proper user guidance.
Hi NiklasR
It seems like you're encountering a known issue with Power BI Report Server and DirectQuery models when using calculation groups. Since calculation groups are stored in "import" mode by default, it conflicts with DirectQuery, which can cause the model to be treated as a composite model, unsupported by the report server.
As of now, this limitation seems to stem from the interaction between DirectQuery and calculation groups, and it's something users need to be cautious of. The suggestion you mentioned about adding a warning or disabling the option to use calculation groups when DirectQuery is involved would indeed be a helpful feature to prevent this issue from occurring in the future.
For now, it would be best to avoid adding calculation groups to DirectQuery models on Power BI Report Server or use a workaround like reverting to an older version of the report, as you did. You might also want to keep an eye on updates from Microsoft that could address this limitation in future releases.
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