Report Refresh

[Noob_with_PBI]

Hello,

I am new at PowerBI but managed to create a report from an excel source on my machine. I was able to publish and refresh without problems. This report was created for a co-worker on another team, so i uploaded the excel spreadsheet and the PBIX report into the PowerBI online, i can now update the data on excel, click on refresh on the dataset and it refreshes the report succesfully.

But when my co-worker tries to update and my computer is not on, it fails. At some point reading i did install a personal gateway, which i dont think it makes a difference since on my report setting it shows as not configured. I am thinking that somehow the report refreshing proccess is going through my computer. Is there a way to have it only look at the excel i published on the server and update/refresh from there? my co-worker runs a macbook, so he cannot install the gateway (if that makes a difference).

The goal is for him to go to the PowerBI site, where it has the excel file, dataset and PBI report, update excel, refresh dataset and it would have the updated data on the report. I dont want him to depend on my pc as many times i am travelling and my pc is off.

Thank You so much for your help!

[Tutu_in_YYC]

Hi Noob,

I would recommend that you store that excel file in sharepoint and connect your power bi to that excel in sharepoint. This way you can set the schedule refresh to pull new data from that excel file, instead of your machine.

Check this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YI6ey8EvIAI

[Noob_with_PBI]

Hello,

Thank you for your reply. The excel file is posted on my OneDrive business and also on the PowerBI server (same place as the dataset and pbi report). I can personally go to the PBI site and take care of it myself, i dont understand why my co-worker is seeing an issue, which is looking for my personal PC to be on since all files are online. I dont understand why the file is looking for my pc being online since the "source" file has always been on OneDrive and now it is on the server page. Any thoughts?

[Tutu_in_YYC]

Do you sync your Onedrive to your computer? I have experienced business users connecting to onedrive file through the local drive because the onedrive is synced to the local drive.

One way to check is to open up your report in power bi desktop and click Data Source settings:

If you connect to Onedrivem you should see an url. If you see your local rootfolder, it means that you are connecting to the excel file through your local drive.

Is this the case? if yes, then it is an easy fix.

[Noob_with_PBI]

You are right, it shows my pc there, i am going to try to change somehow to an online address. perhaps i will go to the onedrive site and copy the web address and change the source, would it mess up my report?

[Tutu_in_YYC · Accepted solution]

Good! We may have a solution. We need to get the url through the excel, not the online address.

1- Open the excel file on your computer

2- Go to File > Info > Copy Path

3- Go back to your power bi desktop > Data source settings > Change Source

4- Paste the path and remove "?web=1" at the end of the url

5- click ok, refresh the report and check if it load succesfully.

If it doesnt load succesfully, it means that there are other dependent transformation steps in Power Query that you need to modify.

[Noob_with_PBI]

I did that and it did update! i will run a test and ask my co-worker to refresh while my pc is off and will let you know.

Thank you so much for your help!!!!

[Tutu_in_YYC]

Perfect! If you could mark this as solved, that would be great!  You can always continue with the thread if there are follow up questions.

Also set schedule refresh, so your user dont need to refresh it ( that requires taking over your dataset)
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/connect-data/refresh-scheduled-refresh