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amaaiia's avatar
amaaiia
Skilled Sharer
1 year ago
Solved

Migrate from DIrectLake semantic model into Import mode

Hi,

I have a PBI report_1 in fabric workspace_1. I have a DirectLake semantic_model_2 in Fabric workspace_2. Report_1 gets data from semantic_model_2. I want to convert the semantic model into import mode, so the report will retrieve data in Import mode.

 

Is it possible to achive this or do I need to create a new semantic model from PBI desktop fron zero?

 

Thanks

Need Help
  • Akash_Varuna's avatar
    Akash_Varuna
    1 year ago

    Hi amaaiia Yes, you can convert your DirectLake semantic model to Import mode:

    1. Export the .pbix file of semantic_model_2 from Fabric workspace_2.

    2. Open it in Power BI Desktop, switch all tables to Import storage mode.

    3. Save and republish it to Fabric workspace_2.

    4. Update Report_1 to use the modified model.
      If this post helped please do give a kudos and accept this as a solution
      Thanks In Advance

6 Replies

  • Akash_Varuna's avatar
    Akash_Varuna
    Super User
    1 year ago

    Hi amaaiia Yes, you can convert your DirectLake semantic model to Import mode:

    1. Export the .pbix file of semantic_model_2 from Fabric workspace_2.

    2. Open it in Power BI Desktop, switch all tables to Import storage mode.

    3. Save and republish it to Fabric workspace_2.

    4. Update Report_1 to use the modified model.
      If this post helped please do give a kudos and accept this as a solution
      Thanks In Advance

  • Deku's avatar
    Deku
    Super User
    1 year ago

    Sorry hard to understand the above. Which one will be import, report 1? Importing data from the directlake model? Or is the directlake one going to be import?

  • v-achippa's avatar
    v-achippa
    Community Support
    1 year ago

    Hi amaaiia,

     

    Thank you for reaching out to Microsoft Fabric Community.

     

    Thank you Akash_Varuna 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 super user resolved your issue? or let us know if you need any further assistance.
    If our super user response resolved your issue, please mark it as "Accept as solution" and click "Yes" if you found it helpful.

     

    Thanks and regards,

    Anjan Kumar Chippa

  • AndyHowes's avatar
    AndyHowes
    New Member
    6 months ago

    Hi amaaiia,

     

    I also had this issue. It is hard to convert from Direct Lake to Import Mode. My understanding is that it is not possible using the UI. You can't download Direct Lake models, and you can't change tables to Import Mode in the UI directly.

     

    There's a few options using Tabular Editor but this caused issues after the first refresh for me with invalidated relationships and sort-by-columns.

     

    In the end, I got it working by creating a Python notebook that can be used to convert a model from Direct Lake to Import Mode. You need to follow some manual steps as well but the end result will be an Import Mode model and all your existing reports linked to it.

     

    I've written this article to explain it: https://andyhowes.co/change-a-semantic-model-from-direct-lake-to-import-mode-in-microsoft-fabric/#converting-the-direct-lake-model-to-import-mode

     

    Cheers,

    Andy