Update of historical data when using Incremental refresh

[Kevin_Conseil]

Hi everyone,

I have setup an incremental refresh on my Power BI dataset and I would like to know what are the best practices if one day I need to one of the following:

- Update historical data

- Add some logic on data source (SQL database). E.g. adding a new column on a view which is the main source of my dataset

Best,

Kevin

[v-lili6-msft · Accepted solution]

HI  @Kevin_Conseil 

To my knowledge, you could refresh old data in incremental refresh in power bi for now.

here is a similar post for you refer to:

https://community.powerbi.com/t5/Service/Incremental-refresh-changes-in-old-data/td-p/971408

Regards,

Lin

[collinq]

Hi Kevin_Conseil,

I am not sure how you would "update" historical data.  If it is historical it isn't changing.  BUT, if you add a new column and pull in data that represents historical items, as far as the database is concerned, this is "new" data.  In my understanding, it should be pulled in because it is "new" to the data structure.  This would also apply to the addition of new columns. 

However, if you have the Incremental Refresh RangeStart and RangeEnd set so that it doesn't catch these changes then I would either change those ranges for one refresh to make sure I catch up on all of the data and/or turn off Incremental Refresh for one refresh.

Hopefully, you aren't changing historical data as a general rule though as that means your data is not as dependable as one might normally hope! 🙂