Matching the version of Desktop with Report Server

[Catcheson]

I have read so much about this and am confused.

how do I determine what version of Report Server matches my version of BI Desktop?

i was uploading Desktop files perfectly well with June 17 Desktop And now with Feb 18 Desktop I am getting the well documented error.

My version of Report Server is 1.1.6530.30789 (Oct 2017)

My version of Desktop is 2.55.5010.641 64 bit (Feb 2018)

I work in a large organisation where it takes a day to get your machine unlocked if you get your password wrong too often so I have no way of mucking about with settings the way some people describe.

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

You need to use a PBI Desktop install that is aligned with the SSRS version. There were 3 releases of the SSRS Server June17, Oct17 and now March18. Each has a Desktop installer associated with it.

You were using June17-SSRS-Desktop with the Oct17-SSRS-Server which worked fine.

Now you have updated to the Feb18-Cloud-Desktop version you are experiencing version problems.

I would probably suggest you uninstall your Feb18 version and download the Oct17-SSRS-Desktop or earlier (I can't seem to track down a URL for this) I can see the "current" March18 version but not any older versions. Might be useful to have access to these.

If you're really stuck I have the 64bit installer for Oct17-SSRS-Desktop I could DropBox it to you.

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

You need to use a PBI Desktop install that is aligned with the SSRS version. There were 3 releases of the SSRS Server June17, Oct17 and now March18. Each has a Desktop installer associated with it.

You were using June17-SSRS-Desktop with the Oct17-SSRS-Server which worked fine.

Now you have updated to the Feb18-Cloud-Desktop version you are experiencing version problems.

I would probably suggest you uninstall your Feb18 version and download the Oct17-SSRS-Desktop or earlier (I can't seem to track down a URL for this) I can see the "current" March18 version but not any older versions. Might be useful to have access to these.

If you're really stuck I have the 64bit installer for Oct17-SSRS-Desktop I could DropBox it to you.

[Catcheson]

Apologies for bombarding you but I have opened my Feb 18 file in the Jun 17 version, made some changes and resolved it.

i still cannot upload it into the Oct 2017 Report Server and it still won’t accept it.  I am assuming that it still sees it as a later version.  I can’t see any way of saving it “down”a version the way you can in Office...

[Anonymous]

I have a bad feeling the only way of "downgrading" the PBIX file might be to unzip it, alter the meta data and re-zip it. And there's no guarantee that this will work. 

Of course you could download the original (old version) of the PBIX file from the SSRS-PBI server and repeat your changes in the correct version of PBI Desktop.

The June 2017 SSRS Server is really intolerant of this sort of stuff. The Oct17 versions seems to be more tolerant. Can’t speak for the March18 version as we have yet to install it.

[Catcheson]

Thanks so much for coming back so quickly!

An associated question then...if I go back to an earlier version of Desktop, will I still be able to open and edit my report files?  We do have a machine with the June 2017 version and am currently trying it.  I’m getting off putting messages from the start!  I’ll experiment but am quickly learning with BI that you often don’t discover problems for a long time...

thanks again for for your help.

claire

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Unfortunately MS have a bit of form when it comes to comaptability issues in the early versions of stuff. Its understandable as features and just getting it working take precedence. The challenges of supporting this stuff operationally over the long term always take a while to appear. The operational stuff rarely gets prioritised until it's really dire. MS are not alone in this its all about the race for features in software these days.

Unfortunately we're in the painful growing phase where changes to the product are big and too frequently break stuff. It is alas the price of being quite so close to the cutting edge. 

It's fun in a tightrope walk over a pit of tigers with the tightrope on fire kind of way.

[Catcheson]

Thanks for the reply.

Your tightrope and tiger  analogy perfectly sums up my feelings about Power BI!  I’ll be happy not to be at the cutting edge in future!

thanks again

claire

[stretcharm]

If you can get your report server upto the march version it has most of the features of the feb desktop version such as bookmarks and slicer syncing which is nice.

New versions are more tolerant than the early days so they may just stop new features working rather than fail to load a file.

I worked for ok the Oct release for a good while, just had to be careful what features I used if I was going to publish to PBI RS.

I tended to have a later desktop for most of my work, but then ensure I didn't have new features in a doc. I then open and resave a version in the PBI October RS Desktop version. I could then publsh or upload.