Refreshing Power BI desktop files

[RBlake]

Hello,

I'm really new to Power BI and am having trouble finding information on data refresh - there's lots of information out there but I'm struggling to find what's current.

What I want to achieve is an automtic refresh of the data in my report that sits in the powerbi.com service.

Here's what I've done:

• I have an Excel based datasource that is stored in a OneDrive for Business library.
• I am using the Power BI Desktop to create the report.
• I have saved my PBIX file to the same OneDrive for Business library as the data.
• When connecting to the Excel data source in the Power BI Desktop I have chosen Get Data > Web then supplied the URL to the Excel file (removing the ?web=1 reference).
• Inside the PBIX file I can refresh the data and it works.

To get the data into PowerBI.com I have tried 2 approaches, neither of which worked as i would have expected:

1. Published the report using the Publish option in the Power BI Desktop. I then scheduled a refresh which ran but did not update anything (neither report layout nor changes in the data).
2. Logged into the Power BI service and used Get Data to upload my PBIX file. I was able to use OneDrive Refresh for this. This method refreshed the report layout but not the changes to the data.

I'm assuming I must be doing something wrong so the question is this: Can I create a report using the Power BI Desktop (that is based on an Excel file stored in OneDrive for Business) and have any changes to the Excel file automatically refreshed in the Power BI Service??

Thanks in advance,

Rich

[parry2k]

@RBlakeDid you had chance to look at this post, you can refresh your dataset using "schedule refresh"

[RBlake]

Hi @parry2k,

Thanks for getting back to me. I did read this article. I took the following from this article - if you have a PBIX file that is based on a local source (non o365 cloud) then you need a gateway or if you upload an Excel file from OneDrive for Business to the service then you'll get an hourly refresh.

I have a PBIX file stored in OneDrive for Business using data from an Excel file also stored in OneDrive for Business. Schedule refresh didn't work for me and OneDrive refresh isn't an option so are you saying I need a gateway to accomplish the refresh?

Cheers,

Rich

[parry2k]

@RBlakeAs far as I know you don't need Gateway if you source is ondrive for business. DId you had setup dataset credentials in PowerBI Service? 

[RBlake]

Yes, OAuth2 and i was logged in...

Is the expected behaviour that my report page should see a data refresh??

Thanks again,

Rich

[Anonymous]

@RBlake did you ever get this to work out? I'm in exactly the same spot with not getting data refreshed off a publish desktop report. Instructions are quite unclear on this IMO.

[parry2k · Accepted solution]

yes, once you loggied in to your dataset, you should be able to setup schedule refresh, and the expected behaviour is that at every schedule run (max of 8 in a day), you will get to see refreshed data.