Forum Discussion
Power BI Service refresh fail due to Privacy Settings
Hi,
Since Yesterday (18/08/25) around 8 pm UTC all my power bi dataset fail to refresh apparently due to Privacy settings issue.
In Power BI Desktop everything works fine but in Power BI service I keep having an error of this kind [Unable to combine data] Section1/[Query]/[Last step of the query] references other queries or steps, so it may not directly access a data source. Please rebuild this data combination.
I have a dataset that succeeded to refresh at 3:48 pm yesterday but could not be refreshed manualy or with the planified occurence last night. I have reports that were refreshing every day for more than a year without any issue until yesterday.
I've read a lot about Privacy Levels in Power BI tying to solve this issue. All my data sources were set to Private in PBI service. I tried every possible Privacy levels in Power BI Desktop and Service but the refresh keeps on failing with the same error.
I'm using an On-premises data gateway (personal mode). It was outdated so I updated it with the last version but it didn't solve the problem.
After a few simple tests, it seems that the issue is related to every Merged Query in Power Query from different data sources.
It seems that there is a way to workaround this issue but it would mean a considerable amout a work as Merged Query are evreywhere in my datasets and it was working perfectly fine until yesterday.
Does someone has the same issue since yesterday and has someone find a solution?
Is it possible that it might be a bug in Power BI service that could be fixed is the next days?
Thanks for your help.
Hi, I think that I solved my problem.
I tried a lot of things but what seems to have worked is migrating from Windows 10 to Windows 11 and then install the Entreprise Gateway instead of the Personnal Gateway.
First I tried to uninstall the personnal Gateway and install again with Windows 10 => didn't work.
Then I migrated from W10 to W11 => Still didn't work
Then I installed the Enterprise Gateway => it worked.Maybe uninstalling and installing again the Personnal Gateway after the W11 migration would have worked...
I didn't change anything in my Power Query code. I think that the issue was with the personnal gateway and the Unable to combine Error was misleading.
With the Enterprise Gateway I've now set all Privacy levels to Organizationnal and everything works fine.
Thank you for your help
Jean-Nicolas
4 Replies
- ribisht17
Super User
hi Jean-Nicolas ,
Please check if it is useful for you Solved: Need Official Guidance on Resolving “Unable to Com... - Microsoft Fabric Community
Regards,
Ritesh
Community Champion
Please mark the answer if helpful so that it can help others
Dance-Sing with Data -BI & Analytics
Hi, I think that I solved my problem.
I tried a lot of things but what seems to have worked is migrating from Windows 10 to Windows 11 and then install the Entreprise Gateway instead of the Personnal Gateway.
First I tried to uninstall the personnal Gateway and install again with Windows 10 => didn't work.
Then I migrated from W10 to W11 => Still didn't work
Then I installed the Enterprise Gateway => it worked.Maybe uninstalling and installing again the Personnal Gateway after the W11 migration would have worked...
I didn't change anything in my Power Query code. I think that the issue was with the personnal gateway and the Unable to combine Error was misleading.
With the Enterprise Gateway I've now set all Privacy levels to Organizationnal and everything works fine.
Thank you for your help
Jean-NicolasHi Jean-Nicolas ,
Thanks for raising this, I’ve seen a few similar reports since 18/08 so you’re not alone.
As ribisht17 pointed out, Microsoft has an official thread on this exact behavior. Solved: Need Official Guidance on Resolving “Unable to Com... - Microsoft Fabric Community That guidance covers the recent changes in the service around data privacy and query folding, and includes the recommended workarounds. Did you get a chance to review that post and test whether those steps resolve the refresh failures on your side?
Regards,
Akhil.Hi,
Thanks Anonymous and ribisht17 for your answers. I reviewed the article you shared and I'm still testing the workarounds that are explained in it.
My concern is that in the last 2 years We've implemented more than 20 reports that are all using multiple datasources with a lot of crossreferences (which was the reason why we used Power BI in the first place). It has been working perfectly fine for 2 years untill 18/08 and suddenly everything is falling apart.What is also bothering me is that 90% of our crossreferences are between files (access databases) on a same server with a On-premises data gateway (personal mode) and from what I've read Privacy Firewall should not block the data refresh in this case.
Implementing the workarounds in all the reports is going to be a huge amount of work so is there a chance that it might be a bug in a recent Power BI service update that could be fixed in a near future?Thanks again for your help
