Looks Like the Refresh Button in Power BI Service Report View Refreshes the Dataset as well

[Anonymous]

Hi Everyone,

It has been a while that I have been tracking to see if the Refresh button in Power BI Service report view only refreshes the tiles (as suggested in a 2017 post) or whether it starts an on demand refresh on the whole dataset. I appreciate any insights or suggestions on this.

Based on my experience, it looks like the whole dataset goes through a refresh. Now if that's the case, it creates an issue, preventing me from publishing an updated file as I'm developing the report in Power BI desktop. 

Based on tracking the refresh history, it looks like whenever anyone with access to the report hits the refresh button, an on demand refersh happens which seems totally random, it is happening outside the scheduled refreshes and during the time where I have not attempted any republishing to trigger the refresh process. 

I would appreciate your guidance on this.

Thanks.

[v-shex-msft · Accepted solution]

Hi @Anonymous ,

When refresh tiles from a import mode datasource, power bi will update tile data from cached datasets, it not triggered on demand refresh.

For live mode datasource, it will update each time you interact with visuals, I think it may triggered the on demand refresh.

Data refresh in Power BI

When you interact with a visualization, queries are sent from Power BI directly to the database. Updated data is then returned and visualizations are updated.

Regards,

Xiaoxin Sheng

[Anonymous]

Hi Xiaoxin,

Thank you very much for your response. So, this could be that for report with a dataset based in a cloud space (like Salesforce), anytime a report viewer hits the refresh button, it could trigger an on demand refresh. Did I understand it correctly?

And if this is the case, is there any way to limit this option as it interferes with developing and republishing?

Thanks.

[Anonymous]

For your reference, I have included this image from the ribbon in Power BI service as well as the options I get when pressing the ellispis.

I followed the link included in your response to the description on data refresh but I don't get the "refresh tiles" option as separate. All I get is one refresh button as in the picture, and so does every one else who views/interacts with the report.

Thanks.