Disable Preview/Refresh in Data Flow Power Query

[Mater]

Is there a way to turn off the data preview/refresh so that it does not automatically try and refresh the data preview each time you make a change?  I know you can hit the 'cancel refresh' button, however this does not cancel the underying query that has already been sent to databricks.  I have a large query which takes around 2 minutes to run, so if i step through the transformation steps, it kicks off a 'preview query' every time, which then creates multiple instances of the same query being run on databricks. 

Ideally I want to be able to open the dataflow query in power query, make multiple changes, and at the end, initiate a data preview refresh myself.

thanks

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Hi, @Mater 

Regarding Databricks, there is no way to completely turn off the auto-preview and auto-refresh features, which is dictated by the way Databricks works, which automatically tries to preview or refresh the data to provide real-time feedback and a better user experience. While the Cancel Refresh button doesn't completely stop the query execution, it at least prevents Databricks from reloading the data every time it changes. If possible, you can try to optimize your query to improve its execution speed.

You can consider adding all the required conversion steps first without checking their immediate effect.

To avoid triggering a preview, you can also write M code directly in the advanced editor, or carefully apply the changes without clicking any additional steps or triggering a refresh.

In terms of optimization, you can check out the following documentation：

Optimization recommendations on Azure Databricks - Azure Databricks | Microsoft Learn

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Yongkang Hua

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