Can't schedule refresh when Power BI Desktop report converted from DirectQuery to Import

[fingerz]

I have a Power BI Desktop report that was using DirectQuery to access data from an on-prem SQL server. In order to do some data manipulation within Power BI, I switched the report to Import the data from SQL. The report is saved on OneDrive for Business and the file has been refreshed by Power BI, but the service is not offering me the option of scheduling a refresh. I have both a Personal Gateway and Enterprise Gateway avaialble and working for other reports.

Do I need to re-import the report into the Power BI service? This will require me to rebuild all dashboards based on tiles from this report and then share them again with members of my team.

[ankitpatira]

@fingerz fact that you were able to hit Refresh Now and manually refresh which would have made use of your on-premise data gateway i don't think it would be an issue with the gateway. Maybe report in power bi service does need re-import (not 100% sure). as a test can you import same report in power bi service as something else so import it fresh and see if you get schedule refresh option. if you do then probably you need to re-import in power bi service.

[fingerz]

@ankitpatira Sorry, my wording was a little confusing. I meant that Power BI was able to refresh the file from OneDrive, but it does not give me either the option to Refresh Now or Schedule Refresh. It still says the file is using DirectQuery and so now refresh options are presented. Importing the same file again fixes the problem, but requires me to rebuild all Dashboards using tiles from the original report.

Since there is a one-click option in Power BI Desktop to switch from DirectQuery to Import, I think the Service should also detect this change rather than requiring the file to be imported again.

[v-yuezhe-msft]

Hi @fingerz,

I can reproduce your issue. Currently, Power BI Service can’t detect the change that data source is switched from DirectQuery to Import in Desktop. We need to re-import the PBIX file in order to schedule refresh for the dataset.

If you concern about the above behavior of Power BI Service, you can submit an idea on the Power BI Idea forum: https://ideas.powerbi.com/forums/265200-power-bi-ideas .


Thanks,
Lydia Zhang

[fingerz]

Hi @v-yuezhe-msft, I consider this to be a bug and not a feature request. Since Power BI Desktop has a control for this on the main screen and it can be detected on reimport, then the Service should detect the change in the file when it's refreshed from OneDrive.

[v-yuezhe-msft]

Hi @fingerz,

I will report this issue internally and post back once I get any update.

Thanks,
Lydia Zhang

[Vicky_Song]

@fingerz, I got the information from the product group that currently it is not possible to schedule a refresh after you change the report from Direct Query to Imported Data. Please submit one feature request on the Power BI Ideas forum: https://ideas.powerbi.com/forums/265200-power-bi-ideas

[maximus12]

Just stumbled across this.   Spent a half-day trying to figure out why my data wouldn't refrsh after converting from DirectQuery to Import.  Can the documentation be fixed at least??