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Two new features in Power BI can help you see how current the data is in your dashboard

Do you or your users wonder how recent the data they are seeing in Power BI is?

 

If so, there are two new easy-to-use capabilities in Power BI that make it easier for you and your users to understand the status of the data in dashboards.

 

Both controls basically clear the cached data for the dashboard that is shown to the user to make dashboard load quickly.

 

  • If the underlying data source is Direct connect or Live connect, the data will be live.
  • If the data source is loaded into the Power BI service, data will be most current data that was uploaded into the Power BI service as of the last refresh. It will not initiate a refresh back to the data source.

First – "Refresh Dashboard tiles" is a new control on dashboards. Anyone can do this on any dashboard to which they have access.

 

Let's be clear about that this does. It clears the cached dashboard data for the tile that is shown to the user to make dashboard load quick. When you "Refresh dashboard tiles":

 

  • Power BI will refresh the tile with the most up-to-date data that Power BI has direct access to.
  • If the underlying data source is Direct connect or Live connect, the data will be live.
  • If the data source is loaded into the Power BI service manually or through scheduled refresh, data will be most current data that was uploaded into the Power BI service as of the last refresh
  • It will not initiate a refresh back to the data source.

 You can find and use this this option quite easily

  • Go to the dashboard you care about in the Power BI Service
  • Click on the "…" ellipses menu in the top right corner of the screen 
  • Then select "Refresh dashboard tiles"
  • You will see a notice saying "Dashboard tile refresh is complete"

See this example below:

bm1.png

 

 Second, you can add last refresh date to tiles. See this example showing the refresh time on the tiles  so you know when the tile was updated.

 

bm2.png

 

 You can easily add this info to any tile you own:

 

  • Go to the dashboard
  • Go to the tile
  • Click on the "…" ellipses control
  • Click on the pencil icon to edit the tile
  • Select "Display last refresh time"
  • Save

bm3.png

 

 

 

bm4.png

 

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