Changes to reports published from Desktop to the app passed without using the "Update App" button

[ValeriaBreve]

Hi all,

I have published a report today to my workspace from PowerBI Desktop. I was very surprised to see that the report (actually the underlying data only) was passed on to the App without me publishing via the button "Update App".

This is really not ideal as the data I have in Desktop is older, and in general I always wait before updating the App (via the button)  that it gets refreshed by the service.

So in this case, the updated data in the App got crushed by the older ones from the Desktop version - but just the data, as the layout (that I had changed) is still the old one. 

Is this something new with the latest updates? Is there a way to stop it (has this maybe become an option somewhere?)

Thanks!

Kind regards

Valeria

[ValeriaBreve]

Hello, OK, I never noticed then... I was publishing, refreshing in service, and only after the refresh finished publishing to the App - I always thought that the App was keeping its original data but now I know better. So in my case I would have to refresh in Desktop as the reports are used by many users at any time of the day - I don't have any "grace" time period to do the work. It is a pity that refreshing from Desktop takes so much longer than the Service (in my case 4-5 times longer, 1 h in service, 4-5 h in Desktop). But then again I will need to get smarter in the refreshes by using incremental refresh probably... anyway thanks again for the help!

[Tutu_in_YYC]

Yeah that would be a good workaround too. If you have the ability to download the pbix from the workspace, download it, perform your changes and publish, at least it has the latest data already in the data model. ( this might or might not work based on your scheduled refresh frequency ).

Also you can publish partial changes to your model without fully republish everything using some of the available external tools like ALM toolkit.

[ValeriaBreve]

Thanks for the tip! I do not know ALM toolkit - I will check it out 🙂

[Tutu_in_YYC · Accepted solution]

Hi Valeria,
Report in an App will always query the dataset in the workspace, because creating an App does not create a separate dataset in the app. So if you re-publish a report, the existing dataset will be replaced, thus affecting the reports in the App.

This isnt new, and there is no work-around. If I have to republish a report, I make sure that i publish and refresh it before the user access the reports. Definitely dont Unpublish App, because then you have to set everything up again. 

Hope this helps!