Why can't I export a simple Matrix report with 201 columns? (Desktop AND web)

[amaneta]

I have been trying for months (not an exaggeration) to understand why I can't create a matrix report with as many columns as I want. I will only ever want maybe 300 columns. And, I will never have over 10,000 rows. I have read that Power BI reports allow billions of rows and 16,000 columns. Yet, I can't get a matrix report to work in NEITHER Power BI Desktop NOR in Power BI on the web.

I have signed up for the Power BI Pro trial on the web. Still nothing. I have set the setting for the report to allow users to export everything (summary and underlying data). STILL NOTHING and I'm an admin AND the report creator. I'm getting all the usual notifications: can't display all your data, pick different filters, blah, blah, blah; can't export all your data, blah, blah, blah. I have even chatted with Microsoft Sales (probably not a good idea) to confirm that I should be able to create a Matrix report with LOTS of columns. They confirm it, but couldn't tell me why it wasn't working for me.

I am trying to assess whether Power BI Pro is a product that my company can use, and the ONLY report we absolutely need is a Matrix report that allows for 200+ columns and a few thousand rows, WHICH CAN BE EXPORTED TO EXCEL IN TACT (via the web version of Power BI because I understand the Desktop version does NOT have the new feature that allows this type of export yet).

Does anyone know why this information is so hard to find and why my report is not viewable AND exportable with ALL of its columns?

[amaneta · Accepted solution]

I have finally answered my own question. Here it is for anyone else suffering from this issue:  Microsoft completely unintuitively, chops off columns instead of rows when exporting a matrix report with lots of columns and lots of rows via the web service. All the rows make it to the export, but not the columns. Apparently these reports are "too big". My matrix report has anywhere from 50 columns to 250 columns depending on the filters selected. The report also has anywhere from 1 row to 5,000 rows, again depending on the filters selected. If Microsoft had chopped off rows when the report size was too big, I may have caught on earlier.

Anyway, I noticed some "smaller" reports were working fine, exporting all the columns (200+) and rows (less than 500) correctly. So I tested limiting the number of rows on the "larger" reports, and that worked. I added a date filter to the visual so I could break up the report into chunks. Now, I have to do 5 exports, say, to get one report with 200 data columns and 1100 rows. Finally.

Side note: Having to do this is ridiculous. I have the Pro version of Power BI, and not only can't it export a complete report, but there are no messages explaining why I can't. Oh, not to mention the idiocy of not being able to see the columns on the web or in the Desktop version.

[ray_aramburo]

Why do you need 201 columns on a single matrix?

[amaneta]

ALL columns are needed to feed to another program that analyzes the data.

[ray_aramburo]

In this case Power BI is not a solution for what you are trying to do if at the end is not the place where you would consume the data. A Python script, or even just Excel work better for that purposee.