Use a Power BI .pbix file in OneDrive for business as a data source

[rixmcx59]

Hello all, I am doing a demo on Power BI versus Excel, I have the power BI report working beautifully. The report was designed in power BI desktop then uploaded to one drive for business, the external dataset is a sharepoint online list. The report is displayed in the script editor web part and data refresh is working. Below I will list my questions as I am rookie at Power BI.

1. Why is OneDrive not refreshing as described (manual refresh and scheduled are working)

2. Is ther a way to connect to the Power BI data source from Excel to leverage the refresh functionality

I currently have a desktop ticket open to have the Excel libraries updated so the Analze in Excel feature works. 

1. When I Analyze in Excel will I be able to save the workbook and retain the data connection + refresh?

thanks for any help

[v-juanli-msft]

Hi @rixmcx59

1. Why is OneDrive not refreshing as described (manual refresh and scheduled are working)

It seems that you connect to a power bi pbix in OneDrive for bussniess, but,  i don't know what is the datasource you pbix connect to and where it stores.

Different method and setting of refreshing in Service depends on the orginal datasource.

For better understanding, please refer to

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/refresh-data

2. Is ther a way to connect to the Power BI data source from Excel to leverage the refresh functionality

I'm afraid it is not possible to leverage the refresh functionality in excel.

As far as i known, you could connect and analyze Power BI data directly from Excel, 

Reference here

https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/analyze-in-excel-from-power-bi-publisher-july-update/

3.When I Analyze in Excel will I be able to save the workbook and retain the data connection + refresh?

You could save the workbook,but you can only publish or import workbooks into Power BI that have data in tables, or that have a data model. Since the new workbook simply has a connection to the dataset in Power BI, publishing or importing it into Power BI would be going in circles!

Reference:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/service-analyze-in-excel#save

Best regards

maggie

[rixmcx59]

Thanks, this was very helpful. As stated in my post the data source is a SharePoint Online list and the .pbix is stored on one drive. I am still curious as to why there is no activity showing in the OneDrive refresh history.

[v-juanli-msft · Accepted solution]

Hi @rixmcx59

the data source is a SharePoint Online list and the .pbix is stored on one drive

From this, you mean your pbix is stored in OneDrive and the datasource of this pbix is from Sharepoint Online list, right?

When you refresh from desktop, it will refresh the lastest data from Sharepoint Online list, but then you upload this pbix on OneDrive for Business, then connect to it from OneDrive for Business for Power BI Service, refresh on Service would refresh the lastest data from OneDrive for Business, not from Sharepoint Online list. it means if your data souce in Sharepoint Online list changes, but you don't synchronize this change with OneDrive for Business, the refresh on Service can't show the lastest data in Sharepoint Online list.

Anyway, you could try refresh from Sharepoint Online list to see if it meets your needs, 

https://www.netwoven.com/2016/07/21/analyzing-sharepoint-list-data-using-power-bi-2/

Or you could look at the following link to get some ideas

Power BI: Why my report is not refreshing from OneDrive? Compatibility chart for sources.

Best Regards

Maggie

[rixmcx59]

Thank you for the information, I had scheduled refresh working as described in the first link in your response, I was just curious why there was no history under the OneDrive refresh.

Thanks again for clarifying