Discrepancy between refresh date on bar and refresh date/time on drop-down - why?

[D_PBI]

Hi,
We've been facing issues (taking too long and timing out) with Power BI data refreshes over the past twenty-four hours as well as issues with Azure Data Factory data loads (again, taking 1000% longer than usual). I mention this to highlight that our MS processes are not performing as usual and the underlying reason could also be affecting this subject thread.

I would like to understand why a refresh date present on the bar in a report is different to the refresh date/time in the drop-down on the same report at the same time. I have refreshed the browser, logged out then back in, etc.. See below for the dates. The date/time in the drop-down is correct. Do we know why this is occurring? Thanks.

[v-echaithra]

Hi @D_PBI ,

We’d like to follow up regarding the recent concern. Kindly confirm whether the issue has been resolved, or if further assistance is still required. We are available to support you and are committed to helping you reach a resolution.

Thank you.

[v-echaithra · Accepted solution]

Hi @D_PBI ,

Thank you for reaching out to Microsoft Community.

The timestamp in the report header and the timestamp shown in the dropdown come from different sources in Power BI.

The dropdown timestamp reflects the actual dataset refresh time in the Power BI Service, which is pulled from the service metadata and indicates when the semantic model last completed a refresh.
The date shown in the report bar is typically a report element (measure, text, or field) defined inside the dataset. In many cases it represents the latest date available in the data or a value generated during refresh, rather than the service refresh timestamp itself.

Because of this, it’s possible for the two values to differ even though the dataset has refreshed successfully. The recent delays you mentioned with refresh and Azure Data Factory would not directly change this behavior, but they may have drawn attention to the difference.
If the goal is to display the actual dataset refresh time in the report header, the recommended approach is to store the refresh timestamp in the model (for example via Power Query) and reference that value in the report.

Hope this helps clarify the behavior. Let us know if you’d like guidance on implementing a refresh timestamp in the report.

Best Regards,
Chaithra E.