How does Data refresh works?

[tainguyen]

Hi Guys,

I was wondering how the data refresh works on Power BI.

So lets say that i created a database but later want to edit the figures on the database, how would i go about doing this changes and update it on Power BI Desktop?

Many thanks in advance.

[v-qiuyu-msft]

Hi @tainguyen,

Once you modify the figures on the database, you can just click refresh in the desktop, it will use the credential of the data source to access the database and pull the updated data. there is no schedule refresh feature in desktop, we need to manually refresh data.

Best Regards,
Qiuyun Yu

[tainguyen]

Do you mean the Excel Spreadsheet? because we are not using a database 

[Akinwale_David]

Power BI data refresh is getting latest data from your data source, your data might be on-premises or on cloud, that is from you SQL server data base on-premises or from Azure cloud, OneDrive, or SharePoint Online. There are things you need to consider before going into data refersh, although if you configure your Power BI very well from day one and your data source pointing to cloud also you have pro subscription then you don't need to worry about refreshing your data manually or scheduling data refresh because once your data get updated in the cloud your Power BI data get refresh automatically. There are lot of features in pro version that free desktop version does'nt have.

As I said earlier lot of things need to be considered before opting for data refresh, what type of subscription are you having, you on desktop free version or pro version, what type of data refresh suite your business, also Power BI data gateway need to be look into.

I will love to point you to Power BI documentation that can guide you all the way . https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/powerbi-refresh-data/