Why modifying any measure in PowerBI Desktop is taking so long time (eg: hiding a measure)

[Anonymous]

I have a Power BI Desktop  file containing querys (big star schema) and DAX measures (>100 measures)

After developping the data model during a few weeks, the development process becomes very very slow : any modification to the data model is taking a few minutes...

(by modification, I mean just renaming a measure, or hiding, unhiding, comment, changing format, etc...) in Power BI Desktop.

(Using the reports is not slow. It is just changing the measure which is very slow)

1/ I tried to restart the project from scratch : at the beginning, the modifications were quite fast (<5 sec. per modification) and I was able to work.

But after two weeks and after creating a few new measures, any modifications was taking 30 secondes to 1 minute.

2/ I tried to disable the (Enable Q&A) option, but there is no visible impact.

3/ I tried to analyze with DAX Studio, but there is no way to view in DAX Studio what is happening while Power BI Desktop is validating the modification.

4/ Then, I downloaded a few days ago the last version of Power BI Desktop (April 2020) and now it is just not possible to work anymore : any very simple modification to a measure or a column is taking more than 20 minutes !

Do you experiment the same issues ? Any idea ? Is there an option that could change this behaviour ?

I don't understand how and why hiding or formating a measure could take a few minutes !

Thanks a lot for helping.

Gregoire

[Sultan]

I noticed my PBI file takes longer, almost 7 mins.,  to create a new measure, rename a measure, create a new column and/or rename a column.

I have gone back to find out what recently I have changed or created new.

I found it was a newly created calculated table, if I remove it, things will come back to normal which is around 10 seconds.

Steps I took to fix it:

1. In my PBI file option “Auto date/time” was checked, so I unchecked it,
   Result: It still take a long.
2.  In the newly created calculated table, there was a filter on the [Calendar] table for column [Date],
   I removed the filter from the [Calendar] table and applied the filter directly to the table [Sales].[Date].
   Result: Now times drop from 7 mins to 20 seconds.
3. In the newly created calculated table, SUMX() function was used,
   if I remove SUMX,
   Result: Time drops to a further 5 seconds and comes to 15 seconds.

[v-diye-msft]

Hi @Anonymous 

1. Kindly follow this blog to run the dax studio,

2. Or you can use the Performance Analyzer in the Power BI Desktop, please refer to this document:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/desktop-performance-analyzer

3. You can monitor performance to identify bottlenecks. Slow queries—or report visuals—should be a focal point of continued optimization. Monitoring can be done at design time in Power BI Desktop, or on production workloads in Power BI Premium capacities. For more information, see Monitoring report performance in Power BI.

[Anonymous]

Thank zou for trying to answer, but as I explained , it is not about performances.

I don't have performances issues with the DAX, neither with the reports which are good.

But I have performances issues to interact with the data model from PowerBI Desktop : even on a blank page, and even when the tables are empty (I have created a parameter to "empty" for that, enabling me to refresh and have empty tables)

- select a measure and right clic on it => it takes 30 secondes to 1 minute !

- then click on "rename" or "hide" => wait 50 secondes.... sometimes 10 minutes.

It is just impossible to work.

There is no data / dax access during the time I am waiting, that is why all the links and best practices about performances that you kindly provided in you ranswer, doesn't apply in this case (I read them carfully)

Dax studio doesn't help, neither VertiPaq.

[v-diye-msft · Accepted solution]

Hi @Anonymous 

This issue could be due to that if you have complex data model and have created multiple measures and calculated columns.

There is a discussion in the following similar thread, the community member works around this issue by cleaning up his data model and creating data warehouse.
http://community.powerbi.com/t5/Desktop/The-PBI-file-gets-extremely-slow-after-creating-a-few-calcul...

[amitchandak]

@Anonymous , refer : https://community.powerbi.com/t5/Desktop/The-PBI-file-gets-extremely-slow-after-creating-a-few-calculated/td-p/317616

Why Slow

https://community.powerbi.com/t5/MBAS-Gallery/Microsoft-Power-BI-My-Power-BI-report-is-slow-What-should-I-do/td-p/712567 

Do and Don’t with relationship 

https://community.powerbi.com/t5/MBAS-Gallery/Microsoft-Power-BI-The-Do-s-and-Don-ts-of-Power-BI-Relationships/td-p/712566

Refer

https://www.thebiccountant.com/2016/11/08/speed-powerbi-power-query-design-process/