Report server unable to open pbit

[leahYan]

I have a report is built in PowerBI desktop August 2020, with a single one data source. When I try to open this file in the report server (May 2020), I got an error message as below. I double-check with the desktop setting, disable the metadata feature in Options>Preview features> [unselect] Store datasets using enhanced metadata format. Even so, the report server is still not able to open this file. 

I tried to save as both pbix and pbit, neither of them works.

Thank you very much for helping.

Leah

[d_gosbell · Accepted solution]

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@leahYan wrote:

I double-check with the desktop setting, disable the metadata feature in Options>Preview features> [unselect] Store datasets using enhanced metadata format. Even so, the report server is still not able to open this file. 

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As detailed in the documentation for the Enhanced Metadata preview feature (see https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/connect-data/desktop-enhanced-dataset-metadata) Turning this on makes irreversable changes to the data model. Turning the feature off does not change the metadata format.

Unfortunately in your case this means you will probably have to re-build the report from the ground up. You could cross your fingers and wait for the next PBIRS release (due in Oct) as this is due to have support for the enhanced metadata format, but you may still find other incompatible features that will block your report from opening.

Typically reports authored in newer versions of Power BI Desktop cannot be opened in older versions. New features and functionality are added each month and the older versions of desktop does not know about these. And going from the cloud version to the Report Server version is harder again as Report Server does not support all the functionality available in the cloud version. 

If you are targeting Report Server you should always build your reports in the matching version of Desktop that is optimized for Report Server to avoid having to re-build your reports.