App performance improvement when removing instead of replacing

[Anonymous]

I have a situation where we have a very large Power BI report (over 80 pages). We are continiously optimizing the performance of the report to offer a decent experience to the end users. We share the report, stored in the Workspace, to users via an App.

Normally we overwrite the old report with a new report and update the App. Some users experienced a significant improvement in the performance after we've deleted the old report and published the same report with the same name. 

Is there any logic to this? Could the performance be negatively impacted by user-specific filters added by the users or is there another explanation? Are other people also experiencing this?

[GilbertQ]

Hi there

I would imagine that it could have to do with a report having 80 pages. That is a lot of pages.

There are a lot of variables that could be affecting the report performance.

My suggestion would be to consider breaking up the report into less pages. Whilst it would appear to be good to have it all in one report. Very often having different reports with specific details would make it easier for the users to find the report that they want. And quite possibly increase the performance of the report.

Do the report pages use Custom Visuals? This could be affecting report performance.

Is the report modeled in a star schema? If not this could also be affecting performance.

[Anonymous]

Hi @GilbertQ , Thanks for your reply!

I absolutely agree that those are important factors. Custom visuals, queries used, measures syntax, number of columns, data types etc. However, my question is specifically about the performance impact of publishing a new report versus overwriting an old report (with user specific filters).

[GilbertQ]

Hi there

My only thinking would be that it is because as the report is reloaded (there is no cache or bloating of the report) when it is uploaded again.

And over time it gets bloated and slows down?