Problem with publication of PBIP

Hi DavidPi,
Thank you for reaching out to the Microsoft fabric community forum. Also, thanks to collinq, for his inputs on this thread.

Thanks for sharing the detailed steps you tried. I can see why this feels confusing. What’s happening here is related to how PBIX and PBIP (Power BI Project) files are handled differently when publishing.

• A PBIX bundles the report and the semantic model together.
• A PBIP separates the report definition from the model and keeps a reference to the dataset in the service.

When you overwrite an existing PBIX-based report with a PBIP, sometimes the report can end up pointing to the wrong semantic model in the service. That’s why you see the “Unable to load report” error until you delete the report and republish from PBIP.

Stay consistent with PBIP: Delete only the report (not the semantic model) once. Republish from PBIP so the report binds cleanly to the right dataset. Going forward, stick with PBIP for this artifact to prevent binding mismatches. More details: Power BI Desktop projects (PBIP) - Power BI | Microsoft Learn

If you need to continue with PBIX: Use a thin PBIX that connects live to the dataset already in the service. That way it just references the semantic model rather than trying to overwrite it. If the binding still breaks, you can fix it without deleting the report by using the Reports - Rebind Report - REST API (Power BI Power BI REST APIs) | Microsoft Learn

Also, it is always good to double-check that you are on the latest version of Power BI Desktop and clear the local cache/credentials before publishing, just to rule out local publishing glitches.

Hope this helps. If you have any doubts regarding this, please feel free to ask here. We will be happy to help.
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