Semantic Model Refresh not working in Data Pipeline

[CCal]

Hi all, 

I am stumbling upon a weird issue (or bug) whereby the Semantic Model Refresh Acitivity in Data Pipeline is not refreshing my Semantic Model.

I have configured the Connection, Workspace and Semantic model.
Sometimes the tables loads, sometimes they dont. But I tried with and without selecting tables.

Now, whenever I run the pipeline, it succeeds, but the Semantic Model is not refreshed. What I found is, whenever I go to the Pipeline to confiugure the Semenatic Model Refresh and I click on Save. Everything saves fine.

Then I close and reopen the Pipeline and the settings on the Semantic Model Refresh is gone.

I am using a OAuth for the connection and I have signed in. I can manually refresh the Semantic model outside the Pipeline.

The sources for the tables in the Semantic Model are tables from a lakehouse in the same Workspace (withg F2 Fabric Capacity).

What could be the issue here? 

[V-yubandi-msft]

Hi @CCal ,

Thanks for reaching out to the Fabric Community, and I appreciate @Shahid12523 , for the clear and helpful breakdown. I fully agree with your assessment.

The issue with OAuth token persistence in the Semantic Model Refresh activity isn’t currently listed in the fabric known issues Microsoft Fabric Known Issues, but based on its behavior to ensure your refresh requirements are met reliably, I recommend following the alternatives already outlined by @Shahid12523 .

1. Use a Linked Service with Service Principal authentication for more stable credential handling.
2. Configure a Web activity to trigger the semantic model refresh via the power bi rest api.
3. Always Save and Publish the pipeline after setting up the Semantic Model Refresh activity.

If you need help implementing any of these options or have additional questions, feel free to reach out happy to assist.

Regards,
CST Member | Microsoft Fabric Community.

[Shahid12523 · Accepted solution]

Your Semantic Model Refresh in Fabric Data Pipeline isn’t working because the OAuth connection isn’t persisting — settings vanish when you reopen the pipeline. That’s why it “succeeds” but doesn’t refresh.

Fixes:

Use a Linked Service instead of inline OAuth.

Prefer Service Principal auth (more stable).

Save + Publish after configuring.

If still failing → use a Web activity to call the Power BI REST API for refresh.

👉 Root cause: OAuth tokens not saving properly in the pipeline.

[CCal]

Hi @Shahid12523 , 
Thank you for the recommended fixes.

I have tried the service principal first but that didnt work as expected, hence I fell back to OAuth, but seems like OAuth is also unstable.

I will try the PowerBI REST API via a Web activity.