Usage metrics - date format only shows US, is dd/MM/yyyy possible?

[cymorg]

How do we configure the date format at the bottom of the new usage metrics report to honour browser and OS date format preferences?  We use European date format dd/MM/yyyy in our OS and browser settings.  Our BI Reports all display dates correctly. The only place where US date format seems to be implemented without respecting our format preferences is in the Usage Metrics report.  Is it possible to configure that somewhere?

[Poojara_D12 · Accepted solution]

Hi @cymorg 

In Power BI, while most reports—including your own custom BI reports—respect the regional settings configured in your browser or operating system (such as the European date format dd/MM/yyyy), the new Usage Metrics Report currently does not fully honor these locale preferences. The date format displayed at the bottom of the Usage Metrics report often defaults to the US format (MM/dd/yyyy), regardless of your system or browser regional settings. This inconsistency occurs because the Usage Metrics report is a template-driven, service-generated report that doesn't allow direct access to its underlying model or formatting settings in the same way as custom reports. Unfortunately, as of now, there is no configurable setting available to manually change the date format within the built-in Usage Metrics report. However, one workaround is to create a custom usage metrics report by saving a copy of the default one and editing it within Power BI Desktop, where you can then apply your own date formatting rules to ensure consistency with your organization’s regional preferences. This approach gives you full control over visuals, fields, and formatting, and is recommended for organizations that require more consistent localization and branding across reports.

[Poojara_D12 · Accepted solution]

Hi @cymorg 

In Power BI, while most reports—including your own custom BI reports—respect the regional settings configured in your browser or operating system (such as the European date format dd/MM/yyyy), the new Usage Metrics Report currently does not fully honor these locale preferences. The date format displayed at the bottom of the Usage Metrics report often defaults to the US format (MM/dd/yyyy), regardless of your system or browser regional settings. This inconsistency occurs because the Usage Metrics report is a template-driven, service-generated report that doesn't allow direct access to its underlying model or formatting settings in the same way as custom reports. Unfortunately, as of now, there is no configurable setting available to manually change the date format within the built-in Usage Metrics report. However, one workaround is to create a custom usage metrics report by saving a copy of the default one and editing it within Power BI Desktop, where you can then apply your own date formatting rules to ensure consistency with your organization’s regional preferences. This approach gives you full control over visuals, fields, and formatting, and is recommended for organizations that require more consistent localization and branding across reports.

[v-ssriganesh]

Hi @cymorg,
Thank you for reaching out to the Microsoft Fabric Community Forum.

Currently, the Usage Metrics report in Microsoft Fabric/Power BI Service does not offer a direct setting to configure the date format (e.g: in the "data updated" section) to honor browser or OS date format preferences, such as dd/MM/yyyy. This is likely due to the report’s system generated nature, which may default to a US date format (MM/dd/yyyy) based on the Power BI Service’s localization.

Here are some steps and workarounds you can try:

• In Power BI Service, go to Settings > General > Language and set to English (uk) Ensure your browser/OS regional format is set to dd/MM/yyyy (e.g: Windows: Settings > Time & Language > Region). Clear browser cache and refresh.
• If you can access the dataset, create a custom column in Power Query.
• Export Usage Metrics data and build a new report with your preferred date format.

We recommend submitting this as an idea on the official Power BI Ideas forum.
The Microsoft product team actively monitors this platform for user feedback, and ideas with more upvotes are prioritized for future updates.

If this information is helpful, please “Accept as solution” and give a "kudos" to assist other community members in resolving similar issues more efficiently.
Thank you.

[cymorg · Accepted solution]

There is no option for English (UK) in the Settings of the Power BI Service.  I blame CoPilot for that bullet list because the options seem to be completely disconnected from the context, and root, of the problem. 

Adding it to the ideas forum is the only real option here - it is a gap in the product. That's fine, all products have gaps.  Some get filled in due course, some remain forever (not looking at you SQL Server Management Studio!).  Sorry for the grumpy response, I just strongly dislike suggested workarounds that are not helpful.  

[v-ssriganesh]

Hi @cymorg,

I’m sorry for the misunderstanding in my previous response. Thank you for your patience and for sharing more details.

To clarify, in the Power BI Service, you can set the display language to Default Browser Language under Settings > General > Display Language, as shown in your screenshot.