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Wiktoria_A1204's avatar
Wiktoria_A1204
New Member
1 year ago
Solved

Power BI Data Flow gen 1 issue with refreshing data in Power BI Desktop and Excel PQ

Hi,

We've observed an issue with data refresh in Power BI Desktop and Excel Power Query when the source is a Dataflow Gen 1. The result is an empty table with only updated column headers.

This isn't a new dataflow — we've used and refreshed it successfully in the past.

Additionally, editing permissions for the dataflow don't seem to work.

The problem occurs a few times per month, and recently it's been happening more frequently.

Have you experienced anything similar? Or do you know of any solution to this issue?

Best regards,

Wiktoria

dataflow
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  • rohit1991's avatar
    rohit1991
    1 year ago

    Hi Wiktoria_A1204 

    Yes, this is a known issue with Power BI Dataflows Gen1. A few things you can check/try:

    1. Check Storage Connection : In many cases, refresh fails and returns only headers if the underlying storage connection (Azure Data Lake Gen1) has temporary access/permission issues.

    2. Clear Cache & Reconnect : In Power BI Desktop/Excel PQ, clear dataflow connection cache and reconnect. Sometimes the cached metadata causes blank output.

    3. Test in Service : Go to Power BI Service >> Dataflow >> Refresh Now. If it works in service but not in Desktop, then it’s a connector bug on Desktop.

    4. Permissions Issue : For edit access not working, confirm you still have Contributor role on the workspace. In Gen1, sometimes role assignments get out of sync.

    5. Consider Gen2 : Microsoft is gradually moving towards Dataflows Gen2 (Fabric). If possible, migrate refresh issues are much more stable there.

    If this keeps happening even after checks, I’d suggest raising a support ticket, because intermittent empty result sets are usually on the backend side (storage/connector).

2 Replies

  • rohit1991's avatar
    rohit1991
    Icon for Super User rankSuper User
    1 year ago

    Hi Wiktoria_A1204 

    Yes, this is a known issue with Power BI Dataflows Gen1. A few things you can check/try:

    1. Check Storage Connection : In many cases, refresh fails and returns only headers if the underlying storage connection (Azure Data Lake Gen1) has temporary access/permission issues.

    2. Clear Cache & Reconnect : In Power BI Desktop/Excel PQ, clear dataflow connection cache and reconnect. Sometimes the cached metadata causes blank output.

    3. Test in Service : Go to Power BI Service >> Dataflow >> Refresh Now. If it works in service but not in Desktop, then it’s a connector bug on Desktop.

    4. Permissions Issue : For edit access not working, confirm you still have Contributor role on the workspace. In Gen1, sometimes role assignments get out of sync.

    5. Consider Gen2 : Microsoft is gradually moving towards Dataflows Gen2 (Fabric). If possible, migrate refresh issues are much more stable there.

    If this keeps happening even after checks, I’d suggest raising a support ticket, because intermittent empty result sets are usually on the backend side (storage/connector).