Report/Dashboard not automatically refreshing after automatic refresh dataset

[benmartens]

Hello Power BI Community,

I'm seeking advice to improve our data display system in the warehouse. We're aiming for regularly updated information, but we've encountered a significant hurdle in our current setup.

Context: We use Power BI to monitor key metrics from CSV files extracted from our AS400 WMS system and Excel planning files. The datasets are scheduled to refresh every 20 minutes to provide updated insights.

Challenge: Although our datasets are correctly updating every 20 minutes, the visuals on our Power BI report/dashboard don't automatically refresh to reflect these changes. This means we're forced to manually refresh the report pages every 20 minutes to see the latest data. This manual intervention seems to undermine the efficiency of our scheduled refreshes and isn't practical.

What we're looking for: We need a solution where the display screens in our warehouse automatically show the latest visuals as soon as the dataset has refreshed, eliminating the need for any manual refreshing. We understand this isn't real-time in the strictest sense but need as close to that as our 20-minute refresh cycle will allow.

Questions for the Community:

1. Has anyone implemented a similar system where visuals update automatically in sync with a 20-minute dataset refresh cycle? How did you achieve this?
2. What features or techniques within Power BI are best suited to ensure report visuals update promptly after each scheduled refresh?
3. Are there any best practices or potential issues we should be aware of when setting up our system to automatically reflect these regular updates?

Your experiences, suggestions, or resources would be greatly appreciated. We're looking to streamline our operation, reduce manual tasks, and maintain a consistently updated data environment.

Thanks in advance for your help and insights!

[collinq]

HI @benmartens ,

The first thing to do is get the correct license.  The Pro license allows for 8 automatic refreshes a day, the Premium Per User or Premium Capacity allows for 48 refreshes a day.  Once you have the appropriate license, then you can set up the automatic refresh to run every 30 minutes or so.

Then, in the report, you just need to add the "last refreshed on" so that it can be seen by everybody looking at the report.  It is then just a timing issue between your data refresh and the report refresh.

Alternatively, if you want the report to refresh immediately after your data refreshes, then you could use Power Automate and have the Automate kick off the refresh - tie the automate to the data refresh and once it is done, then it kicks of Power BI refresh.  That would get it dead on with your 20 minute cycle.

As for a best practice - timing is critical, you have to think about the "how bad will this get if the Excel data source fails (for any reason) and all the other things work" aspect.  That can have a current Power BI refresh, of old Excel data....

[benmartens]

Hi @collinq 

Thank you for your answer! However, the automatic data refresh is all set up correctly, like you said I used power automate to refresh the PBI dataset every 20 minutes. The problem here is that the corresponding report isn't updating automatically after the dataset has been refreshed, it only updates when i press the refresh button or refresh the entire page. 

[collinq]

Hey @benmartens ,

Thanks for the clarification.  So, I am not sure I understand that last bit.  If the report is linked to the dataset, when the dataset is refreshed, that means that the report data is  refreshed.  Are you indicating that the screen it is on is not updating and not showing the latest report?  As in, the monitor is sitting in a browser and since the browser is not refreshing, the data is not SHOWING as refreshed (even the report may be refreshed but the browser is still on the previous version)?

I have seen that scenario.  In that case, you have to set up an automatic refresh on the browser itself.  This depends on the browser type and/or if you want to use a third party program.  You could set that up to refresh the browser every 10 minutes or 5 minutes or whatever so you know that you have the latest browser refresh, which in turn will show the latest report.

[benmartens]

Yes, exactly! It's the visuals in the report that are not updating and are still on the previous report like you said, is this normal behaviour or does this normally not happen? I could look into a third party program if there is no other solution available

[collinq · Accepted solution]

Hey @benmartens ,

I think that the issue is the display part - the browser itself.  As we have agreed, the data is updating but the visuals are not - which makes me believe it is the screen itself that is not refreshing.  The actual screen that the monitor is on.  So, that is expected - just like if you went to a website to look at "current news" and leave it on for two days, it won't be current anymore - UNLESS the browser refreshes and gives you the new current news.  So, you will have to have the browser refresh itself every now and then to display the latest data.

[amuhamed2]

Hey Collin,

I am facing the same issue. However, for me, the report owner, the data is refreshed without any intervention from my side, but for my colleague I shared the report with, they need to refresh the data manually. 

We all use MS Edge, and I don't have any automatic refresh plugins installed.

Looking forward for your answer.

Thanks,

[benmartens]

Hi @collinq 

Thank you for your answer! In that case I will look for a browser extension that can automatically refresh the report web page.