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apranko
Advocate I
Advocate I

Problems with Slicers after using option "Sync Slicers"

Hi,

 

I would like to report an issue with the Desktop version of Power BI.

I had a working version of a report with ~20 tabs which was using direct query to data stored at azure analysis services.

Each tab on this report had a number of slicers (between 10 and 15 slicers on each page). I was asked to sync slicers on all pages of the report, so that it is easier to look at visuals located on different pages. After I did this, a number of problems started happening:

* in general, the report became very slow (I guess this is because I had many slicers on 20+ pages)

* sometimes, selections would not clear even if I would remove all slicers from a given page

* things got much worse after I tried unsync the slicers by doing View->Sych Slicers-> uncheck boxes:

  ** this didn't work for all tabs: on some tabs slicers would unsync, but on others they would remain synced

  ** after clearing the previously made choices, slicers stopped showing available options: they would all show (Blank) as the only available option

  ** a previously working visual on one of the tabs stopped showing any results

* Sent my report to a colleague. He had the same issues. So, it doesn't seem to be related to Power BI installation on my laptop.

 

After having spent two days trying to fix the report, I'm very frustrated at this point and would appreciate help from an expert.

 

I know believe there is a major bug with the implementation of the Sync Slicers option.

 

Thanks,

Alex.  

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Just to update on this issue.

Eventually, I did find a solution to my issue. After many trials and errors, the easiest option was to remove all slicers from all tabs and create them anew. I did waste quite a bit of time trying to understand what a heck was going on. I have to admit that I could come up with any good logical explanation. My best guess is that something funky was going on after synching all of the slicers. It might be a bug or might be a feature. In any case, if you face similar issues when using "SYNC Slicers" option, then I suggest to completely remove all slicers, add then a new, and only after that carefully sync only those slciers that you really need to be synched. I also suggest to pay close attention to how you synch the slicers. Make sure a second copy of the slicer is not created on top of the original slicer that you created (this happened in my case).

View solution in original post

12 REPLIES 12
Alaleh
Frequent Visitor

I found it help full :

Under Sync Slicer go to Advance Options : Uncheck the Sync Field Changes to Others  and the  Sync filter changes to other slicers options

 

JimT99
Frequent Visitor

I note that I have experienced synched slicers becoming un-synched by themselves. Suddenly the visuals stop working, and not thinking it could be the slicers, many hours spent trouble-shooting until finally, check the slicers and they're no longer synched. This needs to be fixed.

nmuntal
New Member

Has anyone found a simpler solution than clicking around for hours or deleting all your work? I have been able to fix some of them but there are others that when I delete and re-add slicers individually, they STILL keep syncing up to existing slicers. I have removed all hidden filters from the selection view and deleted EVERY.SINGLE.ONE of my dozens of bookmarks and I still can't fix these few filters. I am going CRAZY!!!! I just want to add new filters without it syncing to other pages. Anyone have solutions that aren't aimlessly clicking around a totally unintuitive functionality? 

Anonymous
Not applicable

Make a "Filters" tab with the primary slicers and synch them to tabs they should connect with. 

 

I recommend only slicers on the individual tabs that may be needed for a specific page/visual. 

 

 

les411
Advocate I
Advocate I

Here is some additional information I shared on a similar thread about how to remove "ghost" slicers: https://community.powerbi.com/t5/Desktop/Filter-remains-after-removing-Synced-Slicer-from-a-page-wit...

 

 

 

 

TickboxPhil
Advocate IV
Advocate IV

I setup a bug report for it to be fixed - the info here should help them identify.

 

Please vote for it to get rid of this hassle! https://community.powerbi.com/t5/Issues/Sync-Slicers-is-buggy-still-filters-even-after-un-selecting/... 

RMDNA
Solution Sage
Solution Sage

20 tabs with 10/15 slicers each is 200-300 total, which is a ton. I'm not surprised at all that PBI's syncing started having issues at that point.

 

I don't think it's a bug so much as an outlier case of having too many slicers, which you acknowledged. There's not really anything to fix on their end.

 

Is there anything you can do to cut down on the total number of slicers? 200+ is a staggeringly high number.

 Hi RMDNA,

 

Yes, I acknowledge that ~200 slicers is a lot. However, the important point is that all problems started after I tried to un-sync the earlier synched slicers. The report was working just fine with all those 200 slicers when they were un-synced, i.e. each slicer acted only on a page it was on. I was aksed to sycn the slicers for convenience of looking at other tabs of the report under the same selection. I quickly realized that syncing the slicers had a major impact on the response time and I decided to revert back to the original state. Yes, I was fulish enough to forget to save the previously working version as it was. So, I tried to un-sync the slicers and this is when I started having all of those weird issues. My point is that if there is a way to sync the slicers, then the option to un-sync them should return the report into its original state, but it does not.

 

Thanks,

Alex.    

Just to update on this issue.

Eventually, I did find a solution to my issue. After many trials and errors, the easiest option was to remove all slicers from all tabs and create them anew. I did waste quite a bit of time trying to understand what a heck was going on. I have to admit that I could come up with any good logical explanation. My best guess is that something funky was going on after synching all of the slicers. It might be a bug or might be a feature. In any case, if you face similar issues when using "SYNC Slicers" option, then I suggest to completely remove all slicers, add then a new, and only after that carefully sync only those slciers that you really need to be synched. I also suggest to pay close attention to how you synch the slicers. Make sure a second copy of the slicer is not created on top of the original slicer that you created (this happened in my case).

Had a very similar issue as well.  

 

Tested a working tab with a Sync Slicer and then un-synced and the visual would no longer show all months.

 

Created a new tab and re-created the same visual and that worked fine.  Copied that visual and pasted onto the orignal tab and it no longer showed all months.  In the end I copied the other working visulas from the original tab onto the new tab.

 

Such a hassle when Power Bi gets in a twist and there is nothing that you can see form Visualizations and Fields panes to fix the issue.

Good tip - copying the visual to a new page tab DOES clear the dreaded "hidden sync filter". Apart from being a life saver, that also proves there is some hidden slicer still applied to the original page tab. In fact, If you tick the Visible box in Sync Slicers for that page, you'll see the original selection still filtering, even if you deleted the synced slicer! I had even tried deleting the page the synced slicer was on and it still filtered the others!

 

Fortunately, I had backup, otherwise would have been in a right pickle - but could, as per this helpful post, copy the vis to another page and it dumped the filter, phew!

I think I "may" have found a solution, which I submit here so others can test it:

 

The Slicer syncing seems to be working if I make sure the relationships between tables are managed "appropriately".

 

E.g. rather than relating two tables with "Manage Relationships" as "Cardinality" "Many to one (*:1) to "Cross filter direction" "Single", I selected "Cross filter direction" "Both". There is then an additional selection which becomes active, "Apply security filter in both directions", which I wasn't sure what to do with so I left it unchecked.

 

Then I set up the Synching between both tables both ways (It may work with Synching one way, I haven't tried).

 

Please let me know if this works for you.

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