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WorkHard
Helper V
Helper V

Power BI Gateway locks an access file every morning when it refreshes the report

This appears to be a semi-recent issue.

I have a report connected to an access database .accdb.

Every morning this report is refreshed automatically via service using an on-premises gateway. 

 

Every morning the gateway locks the access file by adding an additional file with the same name but with the extension .laccdb as if I have the file open somewhere.

 

Is there a reason why the gateway keeps it locked and a way to avoid it?

 

3 REPLIES 3
BobH
Frequent Visitor

That has always been our experience with ms access and the on-prem gateway; file is permanently locked when the gateway first connects.  We've never found a solution for that and our users have shifted to rewriting the access logic into power query if they can (the ideal solution IMO)...others have shifted to completely different platforms like Alteryx to do the data prep.  I can't find any info on the product roadmap for MS Access but sure seems like something microsoft isn't investing much in.

v-rzhou-msft
Community Support
Community Support

Hi @WorkHard 

You may refer to On-premises data gateway architecture. For reference: How the gateway works

1.png

In step 6, queries like Power BI refreshes and Azure Analysis Services refreshes can return large amounts of data. For such queries, data is temporarily stored on the gateway machine. This data storage continues until all data is received from the data source. The data is then sent back to the cloud service. This process is called spooling. We recommend you use a solid-state drive (SSD) as the spooling storage.

 

Best Regards,

Rico Zhou

 

If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly. 

 

Thanks for this info but that doesn't answer the question of why it keeps the file locked or a way to avoid it.

 

I expect the gateway to lock it for a few minutes when the refresh occurs and then remove the lock when it's done.

Instead, the locked file remains in the folder forever 24/7. It doesn't just appear for a minute when the gateway refreshes the dataset, it's permanent.

 

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