Dashboards Tiles Turn Blank for Relative Date Filter - Ghost date filter bug

[jwademcg]

So we make available the entire dataset (no filters) on the report.  We have placed a relative date filter slicer directly on the report.  So then we design out a dashboard utilizing this relative date filter and pinning tiles.  One tile for last day, another tile for last 7 days etc...

Well as time passes the tiles are just blank now.  Have tried and retried, deleting and starting over with the same result.  If you go to the dashboard and open the tiles in focus mode you can see the relative date filters are working: The relative date filters all look correct meaning the last 7 days shows the last 7 days as of today (dynamically changing) as it should, however, the tile itself is not showing any data.  If I go back to the report and do the same filter that I created the tile with then it shows.  I can then repin, but again after so many days the tile just goes blank.

This seems to say that the underlying data is not being refreshed correctly for the dashboard, since it should either show the original data when pinned, or the up to date data.  However, it shows neither, it is just blank.  This leads me to think there is something wrong on Microsoft's end on the back end preventing us from using dynamic date filters for dashboard tiles.  My next attempt will be to either try via bookmarks or via date columns instead of the relative date filter.

It would be great if the relative date filters could be implemented for dashboard tiles!  Please help Microsoft!

So more info: going to back and tinkering with the tile filters in focus mode (from the dashboard) there is an extra filter for my date column that I did not put there.  This is in addition to my relative date filter that is showing the correct dynamic date.  It says "(ALL)" and does not show that it is filtered, however, if I delete that filter the tile shows the correct data.  Obviously, you can't save the changes to a tile after the fact.  Looks like a bug, please fix!  I am calling this the ghost date filter bug.

[jwademcg]

Ok I've been investigating this more and need to further clarify.

So before I said that I didn't have any filters on the data, but it turns out that I do have a report level filter for Start Date on or after 10/1/2016 that is not persisting to the dashboard level.  It appears that this is the source of the "ghost filter" for the start date "all" showing at the dashboard level.  If I delete this filter before pinning the ghost filter doesn't appear any more at the dashboard level.

My current theory is that instead of "all", it is actually a static filter on the back end as 10/1/2016 through the date the tile was pinned.  So that my relative date filter results in the tile being blank once the relative dates no longer overlap with the static date period. (2 filters on the same field naturally will become an AND filter)

I have not been able to confirm yet whether or not this fixes the problem but I will send another update if it does.  It could be that report level date filters turn into static filters for the current report filter state when pinning to a dashboard.  That is my hope.  It would be interesting to test visual, page, and report level date filters to see if they persist to the dashboard as static filters.

If so, then maybe we can submit a request for these to actually show the static filter dates rather than just a blank ghost filter.

[bheinrich]

Has anyone found anything out?  I'm having the same issues.

[jwademcg · Accepted solution]

So I have since gotten this to work.  If you can keep your embedded page and report filters (and even visual ones for the tile you are going to pin) down to just one across the board it seems to have less issues.  Even better if you don't already have a report or page date filter create a blank one for pinning tiles and use the relative date filter to set it ad hoc in reading mode before you pin.

So the main take away is that you just have to be careful with the existing date filters as if you have multiple and even if you clear them ad hoc in reading mode before pinning the tile some of them seem to persist any way.  Trying to use a date filter visualization before pinning also seems to not always work.  So the best bet is to have one page or report date filter that is either a placeholder or that you can clear out for pinning tiles with relative dates; Keep the page, report, and visual date filters as minimal and cleaned up as possible, otherwise you may have issues with a pinned tile carrying over your intended relative date filter.

[bheinrich]

I'm not sure that i'm going to be able to find a work around.  I have three different pages that i have averages on for each (I am in Oil & Gas, and we are trying to generate a way to get accurate averages for total cost to Drill & Complete, Drilling & Completions split).  So the dates that i'm saying to exclude data from is different for each page since we are using dates specific to the operations being performed. It works beautifully on my desktop, but it won't be any help if my boss and mgmt. can't see the numbers in the dashboard/reports!

[Anonymous]

To add .. Attention Microsoft - This is in relation to http://community.powerbi.com/t5/Service/Dashboards-are-not-refreshing/m-p/383933#M42094 which has been closed as solved however, this case is very much NOT solved. In this post, user jwademcg is highlighting the key issue happening regarding date filters however, more elegantly than I originally mentioned.

Thank you to jwademcg for submitting this related/clarified issue.