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Report saving error and PBIX file automatically deleted from file folder

I have been using the same report file for several months in PBI Desktop. Every day I typically make edits, save to my company shared drive folder (F drive), and publish to the web. Yesterday I started experiencing an issue where I attempt to save changes and PBI prompts me with an error that it cannot save the PBIX file because access to the folder is denied or it has been moved, deleted, etc.

 

The first time this happened, I exited out of the file (without saving my changes) and attempted to re-open the file from where it is located. When I clicked on the file, a popup from PBI said access denied. Then the file was AUTOMATICALLY DELETED from the file folder. I didnt' press delete. HOW AND WHY is this happening? This is absolutely unacceptable. I don't understand how PBI can delete files like that.

 

This has happened to me multiple times now. I have successfully saved my report and published for several hours and then all of the sudden I get an error message when attempting to save and the last amount of work is lost. The most recent time, it wouldn't let me save to my F drive so I saved as to my desktop (which worked). I then restarted my computer and attempted to copy the file from my desktop over to the F drive, however it stalls on 82% copied and then gives me an error message "Network Error: There is a problem accessing [the folder path]. Make sure you are connected to the network and try again."

 

I am fully connected to the network and able to access the file folder in order to copy/paste to iit in the first place. Network connection is not an issue. 

 

I have seen similar posts about this issue and no resolution. Please help. I downloaded the latest March update the day that it was released so I believe I have the latest version. 

Status: Needs Info
Comments
v-qiuyu-msft
Community Support

Hi @ngalford,

 

Are you able to save another file eg: Excel file to the same location?

 

Does the issue happen to one specific pbix file or all pbix file? Please create a small size pbix file then save to the same location to see if the same issue occurs. 

 

Best Regards,
Qiuyun Yu 

Vicky_Song
Impactful Individual
Status changed to: Needs Info
 
ngalford
Frequent Visitor

@v-qiuyu-msft @Vicky_SongThank you for your reply. This has happened to me on the same report file multiple times. I have other files that seem to be okay. 

 

Regarding the file path/folder where the PBIX was housed, I am able to open other excel files in that file path, and able to paste other documents, excel, pictures into the folder, but cannot open or paste the one PBIX report in question.

 

What I end up doing each time is to download the last PBIX backup report from the server and saving it to the file path. For some reason it will let me save it to the path if its from app.powerbi.com, but not if I'm copying it from my desktop. Then I rename it back to the old name and spend time re-creating my work. I went through the same modifications and steps as I did before this issue and it allowed me to save and publish my work using the file I downloaded from the server. In the meantime I will have to save and publish every couple of minutes in order to not lose my work. 

Anonymous
Not applicable

 I'm jumping into this issue rather than starting my own thread, we'll see how this goes. 

 

I've been having a really bad issue for about a month now where I eventually get an error 'System out of memory' or not 'Unable to Save Document - An error occurred while trying to save ...... not enough storage is available to process this command. Once I get these errors, even though my report is still open in Power BI Desktop, the actual file from the file location that I opened it from is gone. I have no options at this point because I'm unable to save the report and once I close the report without saving the file is essentially deleted. 

 

This has happened about 30 times over the last month and is very frustrating. It's to the point that I save copy's of files every couple of minutes so that if this does happen I only lose a few min of work. 

 

Something I stumbled across today was that while the file is being deleted there is a copy of the report (Looks like the last temp save from desktop) is available at Power BI Desktop/TempSaves folder. From there I'm able to open up the last file in there and pretty much get back everything that I lost. 

 

The issue as stated in this thread and others is that the .pbix file is completed deleted from my machine. If i launch a new session of Desktop I can see the file name in my recent files but clicking on it informs me that this file is no longer available. 

 

I've looked through the dumps and logs and can't see anything that is even referencing the 'system out of memory' error. 

 

Thoughts? Suggestions? This is very frustrating and I have no clue what to look for. 

 

 

 

 

 

Sal1037
Advocate II

 This is a real problem. I just experienced it. All my work for all the last 6 hours gone. Just like that. I am very sad. Doc deleted.png

Anonymous
Not applicable

This issue has continued to haunt me. Its to the point now where I am saving 2 Power BI files every time I make a significant change (PrimaryFile.pbix & PrimaryFileBackup.pbix). I continue to 'save as' and update the backup file and then another 'save as' to get back to the primary file. 

 

A couple of things that I have done to try and help is increate teh data cache in the Power BI file and with changing the auto recover to every 5 min (Default is 10). Even with that I continue to recieve the following errors. 

 

1st I get the out of memory error. When clicking ok I get the message from a webpage and clicking ok on that acreen asks if i still want to run the script. Please note that this is not a onetime popup. Even though I click ok on the 1st 2 screens and then no on the final screen I still get about 5-10 rounds of these messages before my power bi file is completly frozen. It's at this point that I have to end the task from task manager. 

 

snagit3.png

 

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Juliet
Regular Visitor

Is this issue still ongoing ?

We are experiencing the problem with Power BI Desktop April 2019 release.

 

Users open a large pbix file from our shared drive (SharePoint site) and starts work. On attempting to save the file back to SharePoint, Power BI Desktop freezes unrecoverably and the file is deleted from the SharePoint site. The issue is intermittent, so no real way to consistantly reproduce it.

 

Could this be a problem with Sharepoint saving instead of Power BI Desktop?

Does this problem happen for others that are not saving to SharePoint?

Anonymous
Not applicable

The same situation has happened to me a few times already! After many hours of work a pbix file gets deleted after an error. Is there someone form MS looking at the issue or have they gone quiet?

Anonymous
Not applicable

I think part of my issue was due to my files being stored and opened from OneDrive. Back when I had reported this issue IT had recently mapped my drive to OneDrive. Since then I have created a new folder on my PC that is not mapped to OneDrive and my issues have gone away. 

 

Take it for what it is but I do believe opening and working with a file that is from OneDrive (SharePoint is also using OneDrive, No?) is what was causing the issue. I also have issues with excel documents that I open from OneDrive. They just behave differently, maybe something to do with the AutoSave feature. I know it's not an answer but I would try moving the files from OneDrive/SharePoint and see if you're still having issues. 

Anonymous
Not applicable

Thanks for the tip about OneDrive, but my files were saved in a local folder. Now I have to save and publish on the web every few minutes so the files can be recovered once they disappear again.