Power BI refresh error: Unable to combine data and workarounds

[Bhanu_chPBI]

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.

[v-yueyunzh-msft]

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 Ch...

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]

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]

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

[Bhanu_chPBI]

Hi @v-yueyunzh-msft,

Yes as you suggested i have set it "Organizational" in both desktop and service to but it's not worked. it through same error mention below.

[v-yueyunzh-msft]

Hi , @Bhanu_chPBI 

Oh.... it is so strange ! I'm sorry i cannot find detailed data for you in the background.

For your question.If you are a Power BI Pro licensee, you can create a support ticket for free and a dedicated Microsoft engineer will come to solve the problem for you.They can work with you remotely and look for error logs in the background.

It would be great if you continue to share in this issue to help others with similar problems after you know the root cause or solution.

The link of Power BI Support: https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/support/

For how to create a support ticket, please refer to https://community.powerbi.com/t5/Community-Blog/How-to-create-a-support-ticket-in-Power-BI/ba-p/6830...

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

[SwayamSinha]

You might want to provide some more details such as the data source , Power Query steps?

Also Have you tried capturing the refresh logs through SQL profiler.

Visualise your Power BI Refresh - Phil Seamark on DAX

[Bhanu_chPBI]

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.