Unable to replace existing dataset

[Anonymous]

Hello,

Thanks for reading and helping.

When I publish a .pbix (same name and workplace) a new dataset is created and does not replace the existing. When publishing I am not prompted with the usual "replace existing dataset?" message.

Has anyone run into this before?

Thank you!!

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Hi @Anonymous,

Publish a report with the same name as published reports who already exist in your workspace not mean it will force replace the corresponding datasets and report contents.

Normally, power bi will analyze and compare published report content, dataset, and other internal structures relationships and mark them as same if they match with all conditionals.  After these comparisons, power bi will alert you to choose 'replace exists' or create a new one with similar names. (power bi allow same name contents in your workspace, they have an internal unique id to remark different contents )

If you really want to replace existed contents, I'd like to suggest you download corresponding pbix reports and do modification on them and publish, then power bi will ask you to replace raw contents.

Regards,

Xiaoxin Sheng

[collinq]

Hi @Anonymous ,

There are a few situations where this could happen.  If the file that you are publishing is not EXACTLY the same name as the one on the Service already it will create a new dataset and report.  Another time this can happen is if you are not publishing the same workspace.

Barring those two scenarios, I have read where if you download the pbix file from the reports tab that sometimes it doesn't "overwrite" the existing one (a number of potential reasons for that like ownership and security,etc.) but if you download the pbix file from the dataset, then it overwrites from that level and report.  There have also been some of these anecdotal stories where if you have changed the workspace from old to new then the id's are no longer the same (but, that should happen then only once, unless you are continuing to publish the "old" workspace version pbix onto a "new" workspace.  If that is that case, download it from the "new" workspace.)   If anything has been renamed on the pbix file from the start to finish, this can also happen where it doesn't overwrite.

All that said, to my knowledge, there is no "do not overwrite dataset" option anywhere in the desktop or service that would keep this from happening.  But, if a user doesn't have "build permissions" then they would be unable to overwrite a dataset.

I would appreciate Kudos if my response was helpful. I would also appreciate it if you would Mark this As a Solution if it solved the problem. Thanks!