PowerBI report breaks every time something in the semantic model changes

[amangautam]

Hi, I am trying to make some PowerBI reports using custom semantic models from a lakehouse delta tables. 

Our usecase is still evolving and so in our semantic model.... 

Everytime there is even a minor change such as addition of a new column -- the complete table becomes useless in the semantic model. I have other tables and charts that are still workine fine, but anything related to the modified table breaks. 

I am getting the following error message:

Error fetching data for this visual

Couldn't retrieve the data for this visual. Please try again later.
Please try again later or contact support. If you contact support, please provide these details.

It is frustrating to create a new report everytime there is a change in the semantic model.

Is there a possibility to see detailed logs on what is wrong and how to get this to work?

[amangautam · Accepted solution]

I am not sure why the issue was there. My hypothesis is that it either had to do with the DAX measures or the problem was because the lakehouse had exceeded some sort of limits. We had more than 20K columns in all the tables combined. 

I am still not sure what was causing the issue. We have moved our data to a different lakehouse and things are working as expected now.

[v-tsaipranay]

Hi @amangautam ,

I wanted to check if you had the opportunity to review the information provided. Please feel free to contact us if you have any further questions. If my response has addressed your query, please accept it as a solution and give a 'Kudos' so other members can easily find it.

Thank you.

[v-tsaipranay]

Hi @amangautam 
Thank you for posting in the Microsoft Fabric Community. Also thankyou @GilbertQ  for your inputs.

Issue occurs because Power BI’s semantic model relies on a fixed schema, so changes to your Delta table like adding or modifying columns can cause mismatches, leading to broken visuals.

To resolve this, try refreshing the semantic model in Power BI Service (Datasets → Refresh Now) or Power BI Desktop (Transform Data → Refresh Preview → Apply Changes). If using Fabric Lakehouse, enable Auto-Detect Schema Changes in settings. If refresh doesn’t work, manually update the schema in Power Query Editor under Advanced Editor.

To prevent future issues, consider using views instead of direct tables, maintaining a stable schema, or predefining placeholder columns. For detailed troubleshooting, check logs in Power BI Service (Refresh History), Power BI Desktop (F12 → Network tab), or Fabric Lakehouse activity logs.

For further details, please refer to the following resources:

Data refresh in Power BI - Power BI | Microsoft Learn

If this post helps, then please give us Kudos and consider Accept it as a solution to help the other members find it more quickly.

Thankyou.

[v-tsaipranay]

Hi @amangautam ,

I wanted to check if you had the opportunity to review the information provided. Please feel free to contact us if you have any further questions. If my response has addressed your query, please accept it as a solution and give a 'Kudos' so other members can easily find it.

Thank you.

[GilbertQ]

Hi @amangautam 

Are you using direct Lake in order to create the power BI Rreport from the semantic model? If this is the case, I think currently it is not fully featured supported that when the table changes it is essentially creating a new table and that is why it is failing. Or if you do this with import mode, it is not creating a new table but simply adding to an existing table.