Power BI – Unexpected Increase in Model Refresh Time and Memory Error

[lucaspisso]

Hi everyone,
for the past few days, the refresh time of the semantic model has increased significantly, and I'm getting the following error:

Error
Data source error: Resource Governing: This operation was canceled because there wasn't enough memory to finish running it. Either reduce the memory footprint of your dataset by doing things such as limiting the amount of imported data, or if using Power BI Premium, increase the memory of the Premium capacity where this dataset is hosted. More details: consumed memory 16115 MB, memory limit 16115 MB, database size before command execution 268 MB.

It had been working fine for many months, but from one day to the next, the refresh started timing out and is now unable to complete.

[Anonymous]

Hi @lucaspisso,

Thanks for reaching out to the Microsoft fabric community forum.

Based on the error details you've shared, the refresh failure is due to the dataset exceeding the memory limit allocated during the refresh process. Even though the dataset has been refreshing successfully for months, this type of issue can suddenly occur due to a few common reasons like data volume growth, doing complex transformations in Power Query which can consume significant memory, etc. As @Akash_Varuna already responded with the trouble-shooting steps, please go through them and check if it solves your issue.

I would also take a moment to thank @GilbertQ and @Akash_Varuna, for actively participating in the community forum and for the solutions you’ve been sharing in the community forum. Your contributions make a real difference.

If I misunderstand your needs or you still have problems on it, please feel free to let us know.  

Best Regards,
Hammad.
Community Support Team

If this post helps then please mark it as a solution, so that other members find it more quickly.

Thank you.

[GilbertQ]

Hi @Akash_Varuna 

Here are details how to enable incremental refreshHere are details how to enable incremental refresh Configure incremental refresh for Power BI semantic models - Power BI | Microsoft Learn

[Akash_Varuna · Accepted solution]

@lucaspisso This issue is likely caused by increased data volume, inefficient queries, or complex transformations. Start by reviewing your dataset's size and optimizing transformations in Power Query to reduce memory usage. Consider enabling incremental refresh for large tables to load only new or changed data. If you’re using Power BI Premium, monitor capacity metrics, and increase capacity if necessary. Additionally, simplify the model by reducing columns or measures that aren't essential.

[lucaspisso]

Thank you very much for your support.

I set up two parameters for the start and end date, and the data updated locally without any issues. However, I noticed that during the loading process, the message "creating a DirectQuery connection" appeared.
Does this change anything compared to before, when I didn't use parameters and was publishing the report to the Power BI service?

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Would you like me to help you clarify the technical implications of using parameters with DirectQuery as well?