Migrating Pages from one PBIX file (Desktop) to another (Onpremises Remote Server)

[F_Reh]

Good Morning,

I am building a new version of a dashboard (into Onpremises Remote Server Version: 2.150.1926.0 64-bit (January 2026) from a version previously created in Desktop 2.145.1105.0 64-bit (July 2025)). There are over 30 tables and over 15 pages in the existing dashboard.

I am moving across the Tables (to the new PBIX file) and creating the relationships between them manually. I considered it better to make the effort to manually join the tables in Model View - rather than autodetect - so that I know exactly what Table is linked with which Table (and upon what fields).  Or would autodetect have been preferable ?

Now the main issue is copying the 15-ish pages (with the plethora of visuals contained within these !) to the new PBIX file, especially that several of them contain Overlays (with buttons allowing different views of the data to be presented). So such pages may have many Visuals contained which are hidden - dependant on which view button has been invoked. 

For example:

 Kindly advise if there is an efficient way to move across the pages.

Regards

[v-hashadapu]

Hi @F_Reh , Thank you for reaching out to the Microsoft Community Forum.

We find the responses shared by @cengizhanarslan & @grazitti_sapna  are appropriate. Can you please confirm if they worked for you. It will help others with similar issues find the answer easily.

Thank you @cengizhanarslan @grazitti_sapna  for your valuable response.

[cengizhanarslan]

Autodetect makes guesses based on column name matching and frequently creates incorrect or redundant relationships that are harder to unpick later. The extra effort upfront is worth it.

On copying pages between PBIX files: There is no native Power BI Desktop feature to copy a page from one PBIX to another. However there is a reliable workaround using the PBIP format:

Step 1) Save both PBIX files as PBIP format

File → Save As → change file type to Power BI Project (.pbip). This extracts the report definition into a folder structure where each page is a separate JSON file inside the definition/pages folder.

Step 2) Copy the page folders

Navigate to the source PBIP folder → definition → pages. Each page is its own subfolder containing a page.json file. Copy the page subfolders you want to migrate into the destination PBIP's definition/pages folder.

Step 3) Open the destination PBIP in Desktop

Step 4) Remap any broken field references

Since your new file was built manually, table and column names should match if you kept them consistent. Any visual showing a field error needs its data fields remapped via the Fields pane.

Bookmarks are stored at the report level in report.json, not inside individual page files. After copying pages, open report.json in both files and manually merge the bookmark entries for the copied pages into the destination report.json. This preserves all button-bookmark bindings and hidden visual states.

[F_Reh]

Thank you @grazitti_sapna .The new version in Onpremises Remote Server is supposed to be practically 100% copy of the one in the Desktop version..In which case, would it not be best simply to save as PBIT file first then open in Onpremises Remote Server Version: 2.150.1926.0 64-bit (January 2026) (as you suggested) ? 

As mentioned, I have already started moving across all the Tables in to a new fresh copy of a PBIX File in Onpremises Remote Server and seems to be a extremely long process of migrating everything over (from the Desktop version).

[grazitti_sapna]

Yes @F_Reh,

.PBIT is absolutely the better approach if your goal is a near 100% copy.

Save the older version in .pbit format, Open it in your On-prem Power BI Desktop (Jan 2026), reconnect your datasources and gateway connections and you should be done.

You'll have 

• Full report
• No need to copy visuals
• No broken bookmarks

[grazitti_sapna · Accepted solution]

Hi @F_Reh,

Your approach to create relationships manually is perfect.

I would suggest instead of copying the visuals one by one select all and copy at once, then the hidden visauls will also be copied in the same overlay as you've in your old report.

things to consider

1. Make sure you've the same column names in the new version or things will be messed up
2. Before pasting the visual check the canvas size is same with the older version of report
3. Measures should exist in the newer version
4. Table names should be similar

another Option is to save the file as .pbit

File → Export → Power BI Template (.PBIT)

then open the template file and change the data source

You can also use tools like tabular editor to move the model and compare datasets

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A few suggestions you can try:-