Power BI Sort by Column Bug - Open files that were previously sorted by other column lost setting.

[zapppsr]

Hi!

Every file that I am opening that has a column sorted by another eg. "Month name" sorted by "Month number" is losing its setting.
I noticed after publishing a report that had a chart sorted by month names, that was working fine before.

The fix is simple, just go and sort by the desired column again, but you have to do it for every file and column you have.
After that I guess it stays, so probably it was some change on how it works in the newer versions of Power BI Desktop.

Anyone else experiencing this problem?

Regards,

[v-yiruan-msft]

Hi @zapppsr ,

I can't reproduce your problem, the version what I used Power BI Desktop is 2.88.1144.0 64-bit (December 2020). What's the version of your Power BI Desktop? Could you please also provide the related visual screenshots in Power BI Desktop and Power BI Service? Thank you.

Best Regards

[zapppsr]

When I open the file, it shows sorted by month number, how it was supposed to be.

When I update the file, it orders by month name, losing the sort by column setting.
Here some pictures:

As you can see, the "mes" column didn't change its type or anything.

As soon as you update data, the sort by column resets.

If you need to see it by yourself, I can try and rip off all sensitive data from my file and send it to you just with the calendar table and some fake numbers to populate the chart.

[v-yiruan-msft]

Hi @zapppsr ,

Thanks for your reply. Could you please provide your sample pbix file with mocked data if it is possible?  It will be better to reproduce your problem and find the cause. Thank you.

Best Regards

[zapppsr]

I thought it would be possible for you to reproduce the problem but you would need to update the file in order for it to lose the setting but the file is coneected to my SQL Server.

So even if I send you the file with no sensitive data you wouldn't be able to update it  to reproduce the problem.

Yesteday I published 3 different files and didn't notice that they lost the sort column.
I had to fix them and republish.

I guess this happen to files created in previous versions. If you create a new file with the latest version it wil not happen.

I run more than 100 reports in my company in a Premium Capacity, so now I have to remember to redo the sort by column on every file that I edit.

Many of my files are older that 3 years... meaning they were created more than 3 years ago, in a very different version.

This bug started in November/December version.

If you wanto to have a Team Meating or Google Meating I can share my screen and reproduce the problem.

Regards,

[v-yiruan-msft]

Hi @zapppsr ,

Recently another people encountered the same problem as you. He found that this problem may be caused by enabling the preview feature "Using DirectQuery for Power BI datasets and Azure Analysis Services". When he disables that feature, it can work normally. Could you please try it too?

Best Regards

[zapppsr]

Hi @v-yiruan-msft thanks for replying and for the insight!
Yes, indeed disabling the preview feature prevents the losing of the sort by column feature.
I have an open ticket with Microsoft and will let them know that is related to it.
Thanks again!

[schuffa]

Hello @zapppsr and @v-yiruan-msft ! Running into the same topic, I'm wondering if you have any input / feedback from Microsoft / their developer team, in terms of approximately when this topic will be fixed? Where can I find the General Availablility date in the roadmap? https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform-release-plan/2021wave1/power-bi/planned-features 
At least with the most recent PBI Desktop release ( 2.93.641.0 64-bit (May 2021) ) the problem still seems to exist. 
Background: We are usingexactly this feature - and do not want to miss it anymore 😉

[zapppsr]

Hi @schuffa 

So far, since the problem only occurs in files saved in older versions and there is a workaround that is disabling the Preview of "Using DirectQuery for Power BI datasets and Azure Analysis Services" my ticket was closed.

I just asked them to fix it before that preview features which is causing the problem goes GA otherwise I won't be able to disable and the problem may happen again.

But since now most of my files were saved in the latest version of Power BI I rarely would encounter this bug again. You know that if you correct the sortings and save in the latest version of Power BI it wont happen again, right?

Regards.