Jean-Pierre Riehl on 17 Aug 2017 15:02:16
Ability to exclude a table from Data Refresh (scheduled, manual, API, etc.) in the Service.
In PBI Desktop, we have an option "Include in report refresh" we can disable for a table. But it won't affect PBI Service.
- Comments (82)
- Merged Idea (2)
RE: Exclude a table from refresh in Power BI Service
In Power BI Desktop, in the Power Query Editor you can configure the setting "Include in report refresh" for each query.
In Desktop this will then just contain the information from the fist time when this was accessed. And never try to reach for the source file to refresh it.
If this report ist uploaded to Power BI Service you would think that it acts in the same way.
But Power BI Service, when you start refreshing the query, it will first check if it has access to all the query source file in the report.
-> If it has not, you will get a error accordingly (even if "Include in report refresh" is disabled).
-> If it has, it will refresh all the query's where "Include in report refresh" is enabled.
In my opinion, Power BI should not check if it can reach the query source file if "Include in report refresh" is disabled.
This issue is long known and also many other Power BI users consider it as a Bug:
- https://community.powerbi.com/t5/Issues/quot-Include-in-report-refresh-quot-disabling-doesn-t-work-in/idi-p/331982
- https://community.powerbi.com/t5/Desktop/Disabling-quot-Include-in-report-refresh-quot-not-working/m-p/432771
And there are many more posts about it in the forum. You will always get suggestion to work around this poor design but unfortunately until now I have not found any real will to change or improve the behavior from Microsoft side.
I created a Support Ticket and was told that this is unfortunately as designed. So we need this votes on this Idea to have this behavior changed.
To sum it up:
In my opinion Power BI Service should ignore query's with "Include in report refresh" disabled completely. Also not check for this query source file. So that this settings can be used intentionally to be able to refresh reports with some files not available for refresh.
RE: Exclude a table from refresh in Power BI Service
Unbelievable that this functionality hasn't been put in despite people requesting it for three years! It shouldn't be too difficult to implement, and it fixes very unexpected and unwanted behavior when a dataset is included in the Power BI service.
RE: Exclude a table from refresh in Power BI Service
This would be very useful! Often there is a big table containing historical data that doesn't change over time. Now the refresh is slow because of this tables that don't need a refresh at all.
RE: Exclude a table from refresh in Power BI Service
This is very useful. When can we anticipate?
RE: Exclude a table from refresh in Power BI Service
Another Idea about this topic: https://ideas.powerbi.com/ideas/idea/?ideaid=dcf8d499-1bb5-43a5-b9e0-a0be2266d6da
RE: Exclude a table from refresh in Power BI Service
There is also a even older and bigger Idea about this topic: https://ideas.powerbi.com/ideas/idea/?ideaid=c464fb1a-25e4-4c93-ba72-288a6ff12127
RE: Exclude a table from refresh in Power BI Service
I also contacted support about it. -> was told that it's as designed and to create a Idea -> https://ideas.powerbi.com/ideas/idea/?ideaid=44f7ca13-e8c9-eb11-ba5e-281878bdaa58
I also started trying to collect votes. But since your Idea is already much bigger I will use this now.
RE: Exclude a table from refresh in Power BI Service
There is a much bigger Idea already heading in this direction: https://ideas.powerbi.com/ideas/idea/?ideaid=c464fb1a-25e4-4c93-ba72-288a6ff12127
RE: Exclude a table from refresh in Power BI Service
I just upvoted your Idea. I agree that it's a bug from user perspective. Unfortunately Microsoft seems to disagree.
Previously I also opened a ticket with Microsoft. But there I just got info about all the "workarounds" and that it's not a Bug.
I have also created my own Idea to increase pressure:
-> https://ideas.powerbi.com/ideas/idea/?ideaid=44f7ca13-e8c9-eb11-ba5e-281878bdaa58
RE: Exclude a table from refresh in Power BI Service
Is this REALLY fixed? I'm still having issues where I will remove a table from inclusion in refresh and it still throws an error :(