PBI Desktop report and PBI online report not syncing I have to re-publish everytime

[kphan]

I have a PBI report that uses datasets from a shared file drive. Everytime the dataset is updated, I have to go to PBI desktop report and refresh the report to get updated data visuals.

When I open the report on PBI online the report isn't updated. I have to go back to PBI desktop, re-publish the report, go to PBI online, and refresh that report and then the updates finally stay.

My goal is to automate this so I don't have to log into our VPN and open up the PBI desktop report, refresh and publish, then go to PBI online, refresh that too.

I'm trying to have it refresh itself once every week which I believe is possible with scheduled refreshes but the publishing is giving me a lot of issues

[Greg_Deckler]

@kphan This doesn't sound correct at all. Something is amiss. First, scheduled refresh, definitely. Should solve all of this. What does not make sense to me is that you refresh your desktop report, publish and the new data isn't there and you have to refresh. Where is this file stored? One OneDrive or network file drive?

You could check the Issues forum here:

https://community.powerbi.com/t5/Issues/idb-p/Issues

And if it is not there, then you could post it.

If you have Pro account you could try to open a support ticket. If you have a Pro account it is free. Go to https://support.powerbi.com. Scroll down and click "CREATE SUPPORT TICKET".

[kphan]

Hi @Greg_Deckler, the dataset is on a network file drive.

When I refresh my desktop report, it does NOT update online report.

When I refresh my desktop report AND publish my desktop report it DOES update online report.

I'm trying to avoid publishing the report every time there's an update. I just want to run a scheduled refresh and it'll automatically update the desktop report and the online report.

My concern is that since I HAVE to manually publish the desktop report everytime there's an update and refresh needed, the scheduled refresh wouldn't function properly without that manual publishing.

[Greg_Deckler · Accepted solution]

@kphan Right, that makes more sense. Yes, if you refresh in Power BI Desktop, that does not automagically update the dataset stored in the Service. To do that you need to re-publish the report, which overwrites what is in the Service completely.

You want to setup a data gateway if you do not already have one and setup automatic refresh.

Outside of Power BI Pipelines (Premium) or maybe Azure DevOps, that's pretty much the standard process you need to follow.

[kphan]

@Greg_Deckler  Thank you, I understand now. Any good articles to set up a gateway? I'm trying to avoid having to republish the report everytime there's an update to the dataset

[Greg_Deckler]

@kphan - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/data-integration/gateway/service-gateway-install