Publishing power BI broken when OneDrive refresh is toggled on

[sebadb9]

Publishing a power BI desktop file to power BI service, in an attempt to overwrite an existing dataset/report doesn't work whenever you might have switched on the toggle of OneDrive refresh.

Turning of the toggle doesn't solve the issue.

Reported issues, claimed to be resolved by the product team, continue to cause big issues: Cannot disable OneDrive refresh - Microsoft Power BI Community. This result in a status where it is impossible to adjust a dataset/report. (Even though Microsoft is pushing towards full parity of power BI desktop into the cloud, currently we can't fully work in the browser as not all functionality of power BI desktop has been added in the browser.)

The only unacceptable workaround appears to delete your dataset/report in the service and publish a new one.

Let me elaborate some of the consequences of deleting the dataset/report:

• need to re-pin visuals to dashboards
• RLS/OLS needs to be reconfigured
• related reports/datasets are broken (hybrid reports, reports on the same datasets, etc.)
• all reports directly or indirectly related to this dataset that are pinned in Microsoft Teams are broken
• Deep Links (with filters in the URL) to every report related directly/indirectly to this dataset are broken
• all people's bookmarks to related reports/datasets are broken
• integrations of power BI reports in PowerApps are broken
• integration in Excel Custom data types are broken (featured tables)
• integration of power BI in Power Automate are broken, automation of processes thus are broken
• all external systems sending API requests to that dataset are broken
• metrics are broken
• report usage metrics are gone
• power BI comments are gone
• integration with Synapse Analytics is broken
• e-mail subscriptions on the reports are broken
• alerts on Card/Gauge visual are broken
• everything else I forgot about is broken!

 Let it be very clear: the impact of deleting just a simple report/dataset can be huge. Huge work in fixing stuff, huge in disruption for the business with a many power BI users. Currently we're not updating our power BI reports and datasets, which also is impacting our business operations!

All power BI users are facing this issue and many are complaining about it:

https://community.powerbi.com/t5/Service/Couldn-t-publish-to-power-BI-already-exists-and-is-set-up-w...

https://community.powerbi.com/t5/Developer/Publish-of-update-fails-with-error-about-cloud-refresh/m-...

https://community.powerbi.com/t5/Service/Cannot-quot-overwrite-quot-You-already-have-a-dataset-named...

https://community.powerbi.com/t5/Developer/Publish-of-update-fails-with-error-about-cloud-refresh/m-...

The product team should fix this and have admins the possibility of disabling OneDrive refresh all together for the entire tenant. Simply moving one .pbix file in SharePoint (seeming unharmful) can trigger unrepairable/irreversible consequences. 

I have raised a support ticket for this issue, but power BI support has been unable to solve this open ticket for more than 5 days.

Please vote, and raise awareness of this BUG. This must be fixed!

[sebadb9]

@Anonymous , please have the product team fix this.

[BobBros]

Same Issue here, 

Made a change to column name in Excel file used for a report, Downloaded Report to edit Query, Query changed in power BI Desktop. Now can't publish back the report and periodic refresh can't occur (Error message).

This is major limitation, usability error, need to be fixed urgently.

[Anonymous]

Hi @sebadb9 ,

We've seen that you've submitted support tickets, and ticket engineers have more authority to handle these issues than we do. Sorry for the bad experience, but the best way to address this issue at this stage is delete your dataset/report in the service and publish a new one. It’s by design.we see that you are not very satisfied with this solution and the product will continue to be optimized.

It would be great if you continue to share in this issue to help others with similar problems after you know the root cause or solution from ticket engineer.

Best Regards,
Community Support Team _ Caitlyn

[KathleenBloemen]

@Anonymous 

Adding also my reference to the list already mentioned in this case: Re: Cannot "overwrite" - You already have a datase... - Microsoft Power BI Community

This cannot be "meant like this by design"? That means that once you embed links etc you need to change them EVERY TIME you change a bit to your dataset?

This really needs fixing...

[XchangeVisions]

Same issue mentioned in this case from 24/06/2022: https://community.powerbi.com/t5/Service/Publish-dataset-error-set-up-with-cloud-refresh/m-p/3233030

It would be great if this can be fixed as deleting and publishing the dataset is not an option given the impact.

As it will be a one-time conversion, I can live with some powershell code to update settings to make it possible to publish via PBI Desktop.

[Anonymous]

We are experiencing the same problem, wasn't an issue before onenote toggle

[Jen-CSG]

I can't even figure out where the OneDrive location is... Googling on this topic is not helping. I'd like to be able to update the file that lives somewhere in OneDrive or SharePoint, but can't track down the location.

[sebadb9]

Further insights: 
This "OneDrive refresh" option under the dataset settings:

is only available when the first time the power BI report uploaded on power BI service came there by using the Upload from OneDrive for Business or SharePoint:

If you use the alternative way of getting getting your report to the power BI service, by clicking the Publish button from within power BI desktop:

then the "OneDrive refresh" option will not be available in the dataset settings:

In case you used the first option, Upload from OneDrive for Business or SharePoint, and the pbix file got deleted or moved from SharePoint/OneDrive then your out of luck. There is no way of knowing to what location power BI service looks for that pbix for it's automatic synchronisation, nor is there any way to update the location to a new (for example copy or downloaded) pbix file.

This is a huge issue, with huge negative implications mentioned above.
We're in the situation that we're completely unable to modify multiple (linked) reports/datasets.

Support told me, that they will not fix this problem. Really unacceptable for us.

[karo]

Hi @sebadb9 

Any news/progress regarding the issue? Any 'useful' workarounds (without deleting existing artefacts) to upload updated version of .pbix?

[fjonshon]

any updates on this? got the same error