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Bhanu_chPBI's avatar
Bhanu_chPBI
Icon for Helper I rankHelper I
3 years ago

Power BI refresh error: Unable to combine data and workarounds

Hi Team,

Can anyone help me out to find out the solution mention below.

 

I know there are already many topics regarding this issue but the common solution doesn't work in my case and I can't explain the reason.

When refreshing on Power BI Desktop everything is fine, when doing it on Power BI Service refresh fails and return the following error : 

  • [unable to combine data] section1/usagedetails june/inserted date references other queries or steps, so it may not directly access a data source. please rebuild this data combination.
Need Help

7 Replies

    • Bhanu_chPBI's avatar
      Bhanu_chPBI
      Icon for Helper I rankHelper I
      3 years ago

      Hello  SwayamSinha,

       

      I have used three data source to develop the report. so, i need to proved all the data source which i have used. 

       

  • v-yueyunzh-msft's avatar
    v-yueyunzh-msft
    Icon for Community Support rankCommunity Support
    3 years ago

    Hi , Bhanu_chPBI 

    According to my search and research, this error is a known error in Power Query, and this is the description of its possible cause in the official documentation:

    This error can be caused by a number of reasons, such as the data privacy levels between data sources or the way that these data sources are being combined or merged. For more information about how to diagnose this issue, you can refer to :

    Behind the scenes of the Data Privacy Firewall - Power Query | Microsoft Learn

    Chris Webb's BI Blog: Power BI Data Privacy Levels And Cloud /Web-Based Data Sources Or Dataflows Chris Webb's BI Blog (crossjoin.co.uk)

    As can be seen from the document above, it may be that the reason is privacy level related. And as far as I know, data refresh on Power BI desktop can ignore the privacy level, but when publishing to serviec to refresh, if the privacy level is not configured, it will report an error about the privacy level, and your error seems to be related to this:

     

    So my suggestion is that you can try to set the privacy level of all data sources that require combine to the same "Organizational" on desktop, and republish to the service and set the privacy level of all data sources that require combine to the same "Organizational", and then try to reconfigure and refresh.

     

    Best Regards,

    Aniya Zhang

    If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly

    • Bhanu_chPBI's avatar
      Bhanu_chPBI
      Icon for Helper I rankHelper I
      3 years ago

      Hello v-yueyunzh-msft,

       

      Actually i set the privacy level of all data source to "Organizational" on desktop and republish to the service and set the privacy level of all data sources that require combine to the same "Organizational". even i tried to refresh manually iam facing the same issue which i have attached the issue details below. can you please help me to resolve this issue.

      • v-yueyunzh-msft's avatar
        v-yueyunzh-msft
        Icon for Community Support rankCommunity Support
        3 years ago

        Hi , Bhanu_chPBI 

        You said that " the privacy level of all data source to "Organizational" on desktop" . 

        First, you need to keep the privacy is the same in Power Bi Service and Power BI Desktop .

        You can try to set the privacy level to "Organizational" in Power BI Service to test if it can work or not.

         

        Best Regards,

        Aniya Zhang

        If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly