Having issues with disconnecting and reconnecting repo branches in a PowerBI workspace

[yazdanb]

Hi everyone, I have a PowerBI workspace where I am connecting to a certain branch in my Azure DevOps repo to bring in reports. Once the reports successfully import, I disconnected the branch and reconnected another branch to see if the reports would overwrite (the branches were created from the same master branch). However, even though these two subbranches are the same, I am getting multiple conflict errors even though I did not modify any files:

Cluster URI https://wabi-us-east-a-primary-redirect.analysis.windows.net/

Activity ID 8c4bd7f5-4bd8-4bbd-9fdc-72f035ea4e3f

Request ID d9644371-5564-67e9-433a-d37163e516de

Artifacts [
  {
    "objectId": "97fb0d03-ec61-4090-b6f1-48323bb08de4",
    "logicalId": "1fedff8b-933a-4e65-80f4-1b37afb8ff32",
    "artifactType": "report",
    "displayName": "DSAGG1STD-Position Monthly Dataset",
    "etag": "638870782935400000_../DSAGG1STD-Position Monthly Dataset.SemanticModel",
    "artifactDefinitionVersion": null
  },
  {
    "objectId": "7cdc11ce-ac27-460b-ae47-0bd0ae8cbab6",
    "logicalId": "61feafef-aa7d-4fd5-b7a4-353f5ed685d1",
    "artifactType": "report",
    "displayName": "REPIM1STD7219-Position Monthly Dashboard",
    "etag": "638870782956400000_../DSAGG1STD-Position Monthly Dataset.SemanticModel",
    "artifactDefinitionVersion": null
  },
  {
    "objectId": "135c4f66-64ef-4b3b-b259-d6ebe1d9d85b",
    "logicalId": "fa4eec9f-1767-4892-9443-6fd62f8eacbf",
    "artifactType": "dataset",
    "displayName": "DSIM1STD-Transaction Dataset",
    "etag": "133959551071695229",
    "artifactDefinitionVersion": null
  },
  {
    "objectId": "61ed3983-c70e-46d8-b2d9-5f3c1e0121b4",
    "logicalId": "847be468-4327-4782-a157-3ed301541c94",
    "artifactType": "dataset",
    "displayName": "DSIM1STD-Client and Account Dataset",
    "etag": "133959551218637119",
    "artifactDefinitionVersion": null
  },
  {
    "objectId": "171edfc9-5136-4cba-9963-2e925dad74a7",
    "logicalId": "13febcab-0884-bb48-4c15-1de05108ecb8",
    "artifactType": "dataset",
    "displayName": "DSAGG1STD-Transaction Monthly Dataset",
    "etag": "133959551293384506",
    "artifactDefinitionVersion": null
  },
  {
    "objectId": "f9a99c81-a83b-4d19-b625-f793db8ed39c",
    "logicalId": "24198338-ff3f-4f25-b381-803d79caefd1",
    "artifactType": "dataset",
    "displayName": "DSDQ1STD-Audit Dataset",
    "etag": "133959551335414360",
    "artifactDefinitionVersion": null
  },
  {
    "objectId": "ef6c18a5-2e0f-4b83-bcff-6dfb435d2f21",
    "logicalId": "ef09a530-46f7-acbd-447f-1d28b2db57a2",
    "artifactType": "dataset",
    "displayName": "DSDQ1STD-SWP Operational Dataset",
    "etag": "133959551410058674",
    "artifactDefinitionVersion": null
  }
]

Time Wed Jul 02 2025 14:44:17 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time)

Can you help decipher the issue and what is going on and why this may have occurred?

Thank you!

[v-achippa]

Hi @yazdanb,

Thank you for reaching out to Microsoft Fabric Community.

Thank you @collinq and @rohit1991 for the prompt response.

As we haven’t heard back from you, we wanted to kindly follow up to check if the solution provided by the user's resolved your issue? or let us know if you need any further assistance.

Thanks and regards,

Anjan Kumar Chippa

[v-achippa]

Hi @yazdanb,

We wanted to kindly follow up to check if the solution provided by the user's resolved your issue? or let us know if you need any further assistance.

Thanks and regards,

Anjan Kumar Chippa

[v-achippa]

Hi @yazdanb,

We wanted to kindly follow up to check if the solution provided by the user's resolved your issue? or let us know if you need any further assistance.

Thanks and regards,

Anjan Kumar Chippa

[rohit1991 · Accepted solution]

Hi @yazdanb 

 What's Causing the Issue?

1. Logical ID Mismatch
   Even though the branches were created from the same base (master), each artifact in Power BI has a unique logical ID (e.g., 1fedff8b-933a-4e65-80f4-1b37afb8ff32). When switching branches, Power BI compares the logical IDs of incoming artifacts with existing ones. If it detects a mismatch even with identical names or content it flags them as conflicting.

2. ETag Conflicts
   ETags are version identifiers. If Power BI detects differences in etags between what exists and what's being pulled from the repo (even if the files haven’t changed), it assumes there was a version conflict.

3. Disconnected-Reconnect Workflow Limitation
   Disconnecting and reconnecting branches does not always trigger a clean overwrite. Power BI expects a consistent mapping between artifact names and logical IDs for updates to work smoothly. Reconnecting a different branch even from the same lineage breaks this continuity.

 How to Fix or Work Around It:

• Avoid Disconnect/Reconnect for Branch Switching
  Instead of disconnecting, try merging your target branch into the connected branch (or rebase if needed) so you keep logical ID consistency.

• Repoint Workspace to New Repo Folder (Clean Import)
  If switching branches is necessary, consider:

  • Disconnecting the repo

  • Manually deleting all conflicting artifacts in the workspace

  • Reconnecting to the new branch cleanly

• Maintain Artifact Consistency
  Ensure that the .pbip project or .pbix files in both branches use consistent GUIDs (logical IDs), especially if you’re manually editing or duplicating files.

• Use Git Merge/Cherry Pick Instead of Switching
  If you're just testing changes from another branch, merge or cherry-pick those changes into the current connected branch instead of reconnecting the whole branch.

The issue is not about file content changes, but about metadata mismatches (logicalId/etag) managed internally by Power BI. When you disconnect and reconnect to a new branch, Power BI sees it as a new artifact set and raises conflicts even if files are identical. To prevent this, preserve artifact continuity via Git merges or reset the workspace before reconnecting.

[collinq]

HI @yazdanb ,

Can you please explain what you actually did when you disconnected the branch?  And, you did this in ADO, right?  If you disconnected and then connected another branch in ADO, your Power BI report won't work because it is pointing the wrong ID now.  You would have to modify the Power BI reprot's data source to the new branch.