Cannot refresh from Sharepoint Online Excel file in Power BI Service, only in Power BI Desktop

[Vi12]

I have an excel file "A" located in a Sharepoint Online.

In Power BI Desktop I can refresh a report "A" from this file with no issues. However when I publish the report to Power Bi Service and try (manually) refreshing the corresponding dataset from the same Excel file, all data in my report are shown as "Blank". I get no warnings and the refresh is logged as "successful" (i.e. not the same gateway issue as in this post: https://community.powerbi.com/t5/Power-Query/Automatic-dataset-refresh-from-Excel-data-source-on-Sha...). The only way I seem to be able to update the dataset and report in Power BI Service is by refreshing in Desktop first and then Publishing and overwriting the dataset in Power BI service.

What makes this even more strange is that I have another excel file "B" (in the same Sharepoint online directory) and another report "B" that uses this file as data source. For this report both a refresh in Power BI Desktop and Power BI Service work with no issues. I cannot see any differences in how these two reports are linked to their respective Excel data sources.

The first gauge is after publishing from Desktop. The second is after refreshing the dataset in Service directly afterwards. Have not made any changes neither to the Excel file nor the report

I have a Power BI Pro license.

Is there anything basic I am missing

[v-cherch-msft]

Hi @Vi12 

If the data source in the report is your local file, not the file in the SharePoint online, though you set the schedule refresh for the dataset, it retrieves data from local Excel instead of SharePoint Excel file.  If you want to set the schedule refresh to retrieve data from SharePoint Excel, I suggest you to refer to below steps:

1.Upload your excel file to the SharePoint online

2.Create a report in Power BI desktop by getting this file in SharePoint online. Reference: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/desktop-use-onedrive-business-links

3.Publish the report to the service and you can set the schedule refresh. Reference: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/refresh-csv-file-onedrive#what-are-the-advantages

Regards,

[Vi12]

Thanks Cherie.

I am already linking to the Sharepoint file, not a local file. I have checked this by changing data in the sharepoint file, and the changes are reflected after a refresh in the PBI Desktop. This is what puzzles me: why the same report manages to load from the sharepoint file in Desktop, but not after being oublished to the Service.

Have tried to recreate the same report from scratch using the same Sharepoint file. Then everything works as expected. Hoever I still do not understand why the original report does not work as I can see no differences in how they are implemented. My worry is that the same problem will reoccur in the new report, since two existing reports have had the same issue. Recreating the report is a time consuming. workaround....

By the way I am not using a scheduled refresh in the Service, but manually refresh when needed.