Help with Data Sources and Column Updates in Power BI Service

[maraujo]

Hi everyone,

I’m working in Power BI Service (Mac-only environment, no Windows machines at my organization) and need help with the following:

1. How can I update the data source of an existing dashboard/report in Service?

2. I tried connecting a second Excel file to my report, but I don't see an option. Is there a way of doing this?

3. When I add new columns to my Excel file (current data source), they don’t appear in the dataset. How can I fix this?

If steps 2 and/or 3 aren’t possible, is there a way to save my existing report as a template so I can create a new one with a different data source?

Thanks in advance for your help!

[Anonymous]

Hi @maraujo ，

I am not sure how your reports are designed.

Question1:
For updating the data source, you have the option to either manually refresh or go to the report's semantic model settings, find the Refresh option, and set up a scheduled refresh to update the data source on a regular basis.

Data refresh in Power BI - Power BI | Microsoft Learn

Question2:
If you create a report through a Report project, the data source comes from Excel in the cloud or local Excel.

In this way, you need to download the report to local and then edit the data source on the local Power BI Desktop to add the new Excel data source and later republish it to Power BI Service.
However, it is not possible to use Power BI Desktop directly on a MAC system, you need to use Power BI Desktop in other ways.

Power BI For Mac: How To Use Microsoft's BI Tool On Apple Devices - Master your Data with PowerBI

Question 3:
You need to refresh the semantic model of the report to synchronize the changes in the semantic model.
You can use manual refresh as in the reply to question 1 to synchronize the changes to the semantic model immediately.

Best Regards,
Dengliang Li

If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.

[maraujo]

Hi @Anonymous 

Thank you so much for taking the time to respond and provide detailed guidance!

I appreciate your help.

I realize I may not have worded questions 1 and 3 clearly, so I’d like to clarify:

1. For Question 1, I wasn’t referring to refreshing the data. Instead, I wanted to know if it’s possible to change the data source entirely—for example, replacing the current Excel file with a different Excel file in the same report, without starting from scratch.

2. For Question 3, I did try refreshing the semantic model (as per your suggestion), but unfortunately, the new columns I’ve added to the Excel file (stored on a SharePoint page) still don’t show up in the dataset. Do you have any ideas on why this might happen?

The reports were created directly in Power BI Service using Excel (preview) from a SharePoint page as the data source.

Thanks again for your time!

[Anonymous]

Hi @maraujo ,

Question1:
Since you are using Sharepoint Excel as a data source to create reports.
Changing the data source in the service is not supported.
You will need to download the report to local and open it in Power BI Desktop.
Change the URL path to point to the new Excel file by editing the data source settings.

Question 2: 
Adding columns belongs to schema refresh, which is not supported by the Power BI service.
You need to download the report to local, display the added columns in Power BI Desktop by refreshing, and then republish to the service.
Data refresh in Power BI - Power BI | Microsoft Learn

Best Regards,
Dengliang Li

If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.

[maraujo]

Hi @Anonymous 

Once again, thank you very much for taking the time to help!

It looks like I will not be able to do do this since I cannot share this to a windows PC, oh well...

Thank you so much