Timeout expired when refreshing

[Anonymous]

So i user Power BI service to changing data source, usually it will show error: 'Timeout expired. The timeout period elapsed prior to completion of the operation.', sometimes it refreshes successfully, the time for refreshing is variated between 15 mins to 2 hours. 

The pbix file is around 200MB, DB is Postgres

I have changed the timeout to max in advanced editor but it didnt help, is there anyway to guarantee refresh without failing? 

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Thanks guys, i fixed it, by optimizing the query. Aggerating and tunning help a lot in this, not only reducing the file size but also loading time

[v-xiaosun-msft]

Hi @Anonymous ,

A timeout usually means that it's taking too long to refresh. The best idea is to check the performance of the source. There is no way to guarantee refresh without failing. Since you have changed the timeout to max in advanced editor, there is still a refresh limit on capacity:

Scheduled refresh for imported datasets timeout after two hours. This timeout is increased to five hours for datasets in Premium workspaces. 

You can pay attention to the following limitations and check why the refresh failed.

1, When use Import model, if the memory is insufficient, the refresh will be slow.

2, The maximum size for datasets imported into the Power BI service is 1 GB.

3, Overly complex data model is a common cause of slow refresh, such as using complex DAX function, using too many tiles or using RLS.

4, Runing queries for a long time can cause slow refresh.

5, Check the network to see if there is a network problem, which causes the network delayed or the network connection disconnected.

6, Check whether there is a problem with the gateway. By checking the gateway log or additional log, and looking at the outside of Fiddle, whether there is a firewall problem, whether the gateway is up to date, password changes or credentials expire, the refresh will fail.

7, Check the refresh history to find out whether the reason is the problem of refreshing.

Please refer to the following documents.

Troubleshooting refresh scenarios - Power BI | Microsoft Docs

Troubleshooting refresh unsupported data sources - Power BI | Microsoft Docs

Best Regards,
Community Support Team _ xiaosun

If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.

[Anonymous]

thank for your reply, i think the reason my report takes a long to load is because the connection, and the query takes a pretty long time to run.

[TomMartens]

Hey @Anonymous ,

a refresh will be timed out by the Power BI Service after 2 hours and after 5 hours if you are on Power BI Premium: Troubleshooting refresh scenarios - Power BI | Microsoft Docs

The only way to make sure that your refresh will always succeed is to make the Power Query as optimal as possible and identify and remove the root cause of failure.
Sometimes failure happens during peak hours of Db usage, then you might consider to upgrade the service tier (throw metal to the problem 😉 )

Hopefully, this provides some ideas on how to tackle your challenge.

Regards,

Tom

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your solution. By your suggestion i've edited on Power Query step, to make it simpler. Aggregating in SQL query before putting it in Power BI, the size of the file is greatly reduce, but i still catch the failed refresh. By checking up the query, i see it took a long time to run.