Issue Publishing to PowerBI Service

[Anonymous5]

I am the owner of a report which I recently published to a shared workspace. Upon trying to make a revision I encountered an error when trying to re-publish this report to the workspace. 

 Things I have tried so far:

• I have turned off cloud refresh on the published report. This does NOT fix the issue.
• I have since tried to publish this to my personal workspace. This works normally.
• I have re-published versions of OTHER reports to the shared workspace. This works normally.
• I have also tried to download a copy of this report from the shared workspace in PBI Service, back to my machine, open it in PBI desktop and try to re-publish it, unchanged, and I still encounter this error. I am using PBI Desktop v2.144.679.0 (June 2025).

I do not want to completely re-publish this report as I do not want to break the link which has alreay been shared company-wide. Are there any additional steps I can take to troubleshoot/debug this issue? 

[v-lgarikapat]

Hi @Anonymous5 ,

Thanks for reaching out to the Microsoft fabric community forum.

@Poojara_D12 , @Nasif_Azam  Thanks for your prompt response.

in addition to @Poojara_D12 , @Nasif_Azam

@Anonymous5 I'm including some previously resolved threads and learning documents for your reference, as they may help in addressing the issue.

Solved: An error occurred while attempting to publish repo... - Microsoft Fabric Community

Solved: An error occurred while attempting to publish repo... - Microsoft Fabric Community

Solved: Re: an error occurred while attempting to publish ... - Microsoft Fabric Community

Troubleshoot Power BI Desktop publishing - Power BI | Microsoft Learn

Publish from Power BI Desktop - Power BI | Microsoft Learn

If this post helped resolve your issue, please consider the Accepted Solution. This not only acknowledges the support provided but also helps other community members find relevant solutions more easily.

We appreciate your engagement and thank you for being an active part of the community.

Best regards,
LakshmiNarayana.

[Poojara_D12]

Hi @Anonymous5 

The error message you're encountering — “A semantic model or report named [name] already exists and is set up with cloud refresh” — suggests that Power BI is blocking the publish action because it detects a conflict between the existing dataset (semantic model) in the shared workspace and the new version you’re attempting to overwrite. Even though you’ve already disabled cloud refresh, Power BI may still retain background configurations (such as scheduled refresh metadata or dataset bindings) that prevent overwriting via publish from Desktop.

What complicates the issue is that:

• You are the report owner.

• Other reports can still be published normally to the workspace.

• Publishing the same file to My Workspace works fine.

• Even downloading the published version from the Service and trying to republish it fails — which confirms it’s not a local or content-based issue.

This suggests there may be a metadata corruption or lock associated with that specific dataset in the Premium workspace, potentially caused by orphaned refresh settings, deployment pipelines, or governance policies applied via Power BI Service or external tools (like Fabric pipelines or deployment rules).

To avoid breaking shared links but still resolve this:

1. Try uploading via Power BI Service — go to the workspace and use the "Upload a file" option instead of publishing from Desktop. This sometimes bypasses the conflict.

2. Check for deployment pipeline linkage — if this report is part of a deployment pipeline, its source model may be locked from direct Desktop overwrites.

3. Inspect the dataset's settings — check for refresh plans, dataflows, parameters, or lineage views that might still be referencing the old version.

4. Use ALM Toolkit to compare your local .pbix model with the version in the service — this can help identify schema or structural mismatches that might be blocking the publish.

5. As a workaround, publish the new version under a temporary name, then in Power BI Service:

   • Delete the original dataset (not the report).

   • Rebind the existing report to the new dataset using "Manage Report > Settings > Dataset".

   • Rename the dataset back to its original name.
     This will preserve your report URL and shared link while updating the underlying model.

If none of these steps work, it may require admin intervention using PowerShell or REST API to clear residual metadata, or you may need to raise a support ticket with Microsoft due to a workspace-level backend lock.

[Nasif_Azam]

Hey @Anonymous5 ,

The error message you're encountering “Couldn’t publish to Power BI: A semantic model or report named [xyz] already exists and is set up with cloud refresh” is typically caused when:

• The report you're trying to re-publish has the same name and dataset as the one already deployed in the Power BI Service.

• The existing dataset in the workspace is cloud-refreshed and linked to an underlying source, which prevents overwriting via re-publish from Desktop.

Why Your Workarounds Didn’t Work

1. Turning off cloud refresh only disables the schedule, not the dataset’s cloud configuration. It remains linked to the workspace metadata.

2. Downloading and re-uploading also preserves this link unless you: Remove the dataset or Publish it under a new name.

3. Other reports working implies the issue is isolated to this one report’s dataset linkage/config.

Fix Without Breaking Existing Links

Option 1: Use the “Replace” option in Power BI Service

1. Go to Power BI Service.

2. In the workspace, locate the dataset/report.

3. Select “Download the PBIX” (you already did this).

4. In Desktop, make your changes.

5. Save it with a new name like Report_v2.pbix.

6. In Power BI Service, go to Workspace > Settings > Datasets.

7. Manually delete the old dataset only if you're certain you won’t break downstream artifacts.

8. Publish the new .pbix.

This still breaks shared links unless you reassign permissions and reconfigure dashboards.

Option 2: Use Deployment Pipelines (Recommended for Shared Workspaces)

1. Use Deployment Pipelines to move content between Dev → Test → Prod.

2. Upload the revised report to the Dev stage.

3. Deploy it forward, letting Power BI handle dataset refresh links.

Option 3: Edit via Power BI Service

If your changes are minor:

1. Instead of using Desktop, open the report in Power BI Service > Edit Report.

2. Make the changes directly in the browser.

3. Save—this avoids breaking the refresh config.

This only works if your report doesn't use unsupported visuals or DAX features.

If you found this solution helpful, please consider accepting it and giving it a kudos (Like) it’s greatly appreciated and helps others find the solution more easily.

Best Regards,
Nasif Azam

[Anonymous5]

Hello @Nasif_Azam

Thank you for the thorough and thoughtful reply. I am interested in your deployment pipeline solution and I will take this up with our workspace team. Also, the change I need to make involves tweaking the underlying query so it needs to be done in PBI desktop.

one additional question, if I am able to publish the new dataset without breaking the links, will the existing publish process be broken going forward with this report (at least using the standard method)? The report issues Snowflake and SharePoint data connections. It would be ideal if this report functioned like the several others that allow simple publishing from PowerBI Desktop when changes or updates are neeed. 

[Nasif_Azam]

Thanks for the follow-up! Since you’re updating the underlying query and want to preserve existing links and scheduled refresh capability, it’s essential to understand what happens when you overwrite or recreate a dataset/report in Power BI.

Yes the publishing process will work normally going forward but with conditions. If you’re able to overwrite the existing dataset without changing its structure (e.g., table names, column names, relationships), the report can continue functioning as before.

You can publish normally in the future if:

• You successfully publish from Desktop and overwrite the existing report and dataset (meaning the GUID stays the same).
• The data source credentials and refresh configuration are still valid after publishing.
• You don’t rename or remove key tables/columns used in visuals, filters, or measures.

Once this overwrite is done cleanly, subsequent updates via Power BI Desktop will behave normally again.

Your publishing will break if:

• You delete and re-create the dataset with a new GUID (this breaks links, dashboards, refresh settings, and permissions).
• You publish with a different dataset name, even if the report name is the same.
• You introduce breaking changes to the schema (e.g., deleting columns used in visuals).

If you found this solution helpful, please consider accepting it and giving it a kudos (Like) it’s greatly appreciated and helps others find the solution more easily.

Best Regards,
Nasif Azam