Forum Discussion
Continued ContributorDownload report with Power BI Service live connection?
Hi,
I came across this post as I had the same problem myself, and have found a fairly straightforward solution to it.
I found this blog post here about SQL Server live query, but I tried it and the same can be applied for Power BI service dataset as well:
Essentially you need to:
1. Download the PBIX file (which will be a full PBIX file with a copy of the dataset)
2. Open Query Editor and delete absolutely everything, then close and apply. Expect to see errors in all of your visuals, but don't worry.
3. Choose Get Data and connect to the desired PBI service dataset. (Make sure that there aren't any tables left or PBI will say that there is an existing dataset - even though I had deleted all queries in the Query Editor I still had one parameter table left which I had to delete from the Tables view.)
If all goes well your visuals will all work correctly and you will be connected to your PBI service dataset.
Hi,
I came across this post as I had the same problem myself, and have found a fairly straightforward solution to it.
I found this blog post here about SQL Server live query, but I tried it and the same can be applied for Power BI service dataset as well:
Essentially you need to:
1. Download the PBIX file (which will be a full PBIX file with a copy of the dataset)
2. Open Query Editor and delete absolutely everything, then close and apply. Expect to see errors in all of your visuals, but don't worry.
3. Choose Get Data and connect to the desired PBI service dataset. (Make sure that there aren't any tables left or PBI will say that there is an existing dataset - even though I had deleted all queries in the Query Editor I still had one parameter table left which I had to delete from the Tables view.)
If all goes well your visuals will all work correctly and you will be connected to your PBI service dataset.
Continued ContributorOMG, als987, that works. Thanks so much -- that solves a painful problem I have had.
PaulBFelixAdvocate II
Until recently, I was able to download a report from the service with a live connection to the service dataset. Something has changed recently. Now the report downloads with the full dataset regardelss if it is downloaded from the report area or the dataset area. The work around is to delete the queries & connect to the live dataset after downloading the pbix which does work, but it is a pain. Hopefully this will be fixed soon. The documentation referenced above describes the following behavior which is no longer working.
Tips & Tricks
When you download a report that is live connected to a dataset on the service, it will remain live connected when you open it in Desktop. This means you have read-only access to the model. -- NOT WORKING
What if you need to make changes to the original dataset? In your list of datasets for any workspace, you'll see the Download .pbix option in the context menu under the “…”. --WORKS, BUT DOES NOT SOLVE THE PROBLEM DESCRIBED IN THIS POST
- kevhav
Hi v-huizhn-msft and PaulBFelix,
I did some testing a few weeks ago, and here is what I found:
When exporting a .pbix copy of a report from the Power BI Service, there are two possibilities for what the .pbix will consist of:
- The report and a copy of the entire dataset, with all of the data…
- …Or, just the report definition, with a "live connection" to the dataset in the Power BI Service, as described here.
There are essentially three ways to create a new report in a workspace, using an existing dataset that has been published to the Power BI Service:
- In Power BI Desktop, set up a .pbix file with a "live connection" to the dataset in the Power BI Service (either from a new .pbix file, or from an existing .pbix file that already has the "live connection"), and click "Publish"
- In the Power BI Service, in a Web browser, navigate to the workspace dataset and click "+ Create" button, then select "Report" (or, go to the dataset and click the little "Create report" icon)
- In the Power BI Service, in a Web browser, open an existing report and click File à Save as, and save it with a different report name
The key thing is: option (1) is the only one that enables exporting the file as a small .pbix file, with the "live connection" to the dataset.
Surprisingly, option (3) does not work, even if the original report being copied was published using option (1)! Any time option (2) or (3) was used, exporting from the Power BI Service always results in downloading the entire dataset.
This "exporting" behavior is kind of strange, I think. Not intuitive. I think options (a) and (b) and (c) should all result in exporting just the small .pbix file, with the Power BI service live connection. The reports should always be separated from the data, when using a published dataset.