Getting back the report that was made by an older PBI version

[HalloWorld]

I installed the latest PBI Desktop release on a Dev server and still have the main work for the older PBI Desktop release on the Prod server. To check what the new PBI version brings with it, I worked on a report that I changed a bit in the Dev Jan24 (January 2024) PBI - and by mistake saved the work in the same file. Yet, that would not have been so bad since the versions in prod and dev were online, I could have downloaded the Production file to get the old version back.

And I could then even work further on the same file, back on the on the Prod server, even though the Prod server is for PBI Sep22 (September 2022). After some time of switching around between Prod and Dev I found it unneeded to take care any longer and worked with the newer PBI. I was not aware (anymore) that by saving the work just one time with the new PBI Desktop, you already update the PBI file to the newer PBI version and cannot go back. I published to the Dev - which worked. I thought that this could also be published to the Prod Sep22 report server. Yet, now that I saved the file on the Jan24 Devevelopment server, it turns out that I cannot publish it to the Production PBI report server anymore.

German:

> Speicherung in "Power BI-Berichtsserver" wird...

> Fehler beim Speichern des Berichts in "Power BI-Berichtsserver"

English:

> Saving to "Power BI report server" is...

> Error saving the report in "Power BI report server"

I still need the Sep22-report for the Production report server. I have removed the report in production since I mistakenly thought after that error that I might have to make place for the new file, that there is a problem to override the one that is there. I was plain wrong, now I have dropped the only working production report that was left (since the Dev Report Server and the file are only for Jan24 PBI). Is there a way to get the old 22Sep-report back? Are there any backups on the report server or backups done by Power BI Desktop? Or is there a way to change that 24Jan-report back to a 22Sep-report?

[d_gosbell · Accepted solution]

This is a blog post on all the techniques I know of to "downgrade" a report file Power BI Report Server – fixing “Can’t upload this report” – Random Procrastination (gosbell.com)

[HalloWorld]

I replied to this answer, but I cannot find the reply anymore.

This answer does not work for me, perhaps, I also have to do it with the MS Store PBI as hinted at in the blog link. It says that you have to either rebuild the PBI file by hand (which is clear), or you can save the file as a template and load that in the older version. Yet, that does not work either. I cannot even load the saved template in the January 2024 version:

This file uses a composite model which combines DirectQuery sources and/or imported data. These models aren't currently supported in Power BI Report Server.

[d_gosbell]

The template is only going to work if the report is only using features supported by Report Server. Since you report contains functionality not supported by Report Server you will need to re-build it using a design that works within the constraints of the features supported by Report Server.

[HalloWorld]

My report 1:n-links a meta table with a data table by means of DirectQuery, with one measure to count what is chosen to be shown in the "+/-" matrix in the data view. I do not think that this is overly strange, sounds like an everyday report. Therefore, it is clear that DirectQuery stops PBI Jan24 from loading the template that I saved with the same PBI Jan24 PBI. 

If you have to import the tables only to load a template, templates as such seem overestimated since in the environment that I work in, queries are always fired live in a DirectQuery.

Building it by hand is not an answer since that goes without saying, I was searching for a way to revive a lost report. I have not said that clearly enough in the question, though, and the answer as such is also right: the report is lost.

Since the new Jan24 PBI Report Server is doing well in development, there are now plans to update the production PBI Report Rerver in a week or two which will gladly spare me the rebuilding of the report.

PS: What I do not like the most in rebuilding it is the handywork. For example, for the report at hand, I would need to place the columns in the right order and rename all of them since they get a "first date: " as the default aggregation if I show text columns as values or something the like for other column types. And there is no way to get rid of that aggregation at the front of the values field in the matrix with one click for all columns, instead, you have to do that each by each.