Problems Manually Refreshing Power BI Enabled Workbooks

Office 365 (without Power BI) has supported data refresh for Excel and PowerPivot for some time, and it works well provided that the data source is both in the cloud, and is one of the supported data sources. To refresh a workbook, simply open the workbook in the Excel Web App, open the data menu and select “Refresh All Connections”.

Up until just recently, this was how it worked with Power BI workbooks as well, with the additional ability of being able to refresh on premises data through the Data Management Gateway. However, with the latest refresh of the Power BI application, and its support of scheduled refresh, this has changed. Now, if you follow this procedure and attempt to manually refresh a Power BI enabled workbook from an on premises data source, you will receive an error.

The error is pretty self-explanatory, so I won’t try to explain it. Scheduled data refresh hasn’t just been added, it has replaced the old refresh method. That’s all well and good, but what about those use cases where we want to manually refresh data? The good news is that it hasn’t been lost, it’s just been moved. It is, however, well hidden.

To refresh the workbook on demand, you must first open the Power BI application, locate your workbook, and click on its ellipsis to open its context menu.

Next, you need to select “Schedule Data Refresh”. Now I know that we don’t want to schedule the refresh, but to update it on demand, so you’ll just need to trust me here. Selecting “Schedule Data Refresh” will open the scheduling interface into either the history tab (if the workbook has already been scheduled) or the settings tab (if it has not). In any event, you’ll need to be in the settings tab.

If the workbook has not already been enabled for scheduled refresh, it will need to be. Once it has, the “save and refresh report” button will be available. If it has already been saved, the button will read “refresh report now”. In either case, clicking on it will start the refresh process immediately.

On-demand refresh is still available, but I have to say that it’s well hidden. The fact that it has moved into the Power BI application means that a Power BI license will be required to refresh it on demand, which seems quite reasonable to me. However, some better visual cues would be a big help. For example, why not add “refresh now” to the context menu in the Power BI application?

In addition, given that the refresh is being initiated manually, some visual cues around the status of the refresh (started, in progress, completed) would help considerably. As it stands, the only status information is available after the refresh completes, on the history tab of “Schedule Data Refresh”.

There has also been another subtle change around how workbooks are displayed in Power BI. When a workbook is opened from the source Office 365 library, the standard Excel Web App interface is displayed, with options for opening in Excel, editing, etc. displayed.

However, if you first navigate to the Power BI application, and open the workbook by clicking on the thumbnail, it will open in the browser but without the Web App chrome.

I’m not sure what the reasoning is for this different behaviour, but it’s a change, and something that you should be aware of. UPDATE 14/2/14 – It has been explained to me that the reason for this different behaviour is an effort to reduce screen clutter for those using the Power BI application. It’s a consumption mostly application, so this change makes sense in that context. It’s also possible to add the Excel Web app chrome back in by using a new “action bar” (my name). If you look to the bottom of the worksheet window, you’ll see it, and its three icons.

The three icons, from left, allow you to submit feedback to Microsoft, to get embed codes for the report (a new feature!) and finally, to restore the standard Web App chrome (for editing etc.)