How to Refresh Data in Power BI (Manually & Automatically)

Power BI is great at visualizing data insights.

But at the same time, refreshing data in Power BI is essential to make sure you’re relying on the correct visualizations, dashboards, and reports. Especially for organizations that rely on real-time data insights, timely refreshing of data is very important ⏱

Refreshing datasets in Power BI is easy and can be done through two methods.

In this guide, we will explore both these methods so follow me till the end.

What does it mean to refresh data in Power BI?

Power BI enables you to go from data to insights quickly. To make sure the reports/dashboards you’re generating are accurate and reliable, you must make sure the data behind it is up to date.

There are two ways how you can refresh data in Power BI 👇

Manually
Automatic Refresh

Every time the data is refreshed, this is what you should expect of Power BI:

Data Retrieval: Power BI queries the data sources and fetches the latest data.
Model Update: The processed data is integrated into the Power BI model.
Visualization Refresh: Visualizations are checked for any updates and updated to reflect the same, if any.

Performing the data refreshing exercise in Power BI or setting it up for scheduled performance is simpler than you think.

Let me take you through both methods to refresh data in Power BI.

Manual Data Refresh

Manual refreshing of data in Power BI is the simplest and easiest 🌠

The only problem is that since this is manual, you’d have to repeat it time and time again for every incremental refresh.

Here’s how you do it.

Power BI Desktop

For Power BI Desktop, to refresh data you need to look around for the Refresh button.

Fortunately, it’s just there before you.

Go to the Home tab > Queries group > Refresh 🚴‍♀️

The pathway to the Refresh button remains the same under all view types i.e., Report View, Table View, or Dashboard View. You’ll find it on the Ribbon in the Home tab under the Queries group.

Kasper Langmann, co-founder of Spreadsheeto

Clicking on the Refresh button will refresh the underlying data for your Power BI model.

Power BI Service

The process is the same for manually refreshing data in Power BI Service:

Press the Refresh Button.

Here’s how you find it 🥂

Step 1) Log on to Powerbi.com.

Step 2) Sign in to your Power BI Service account with your credentials.

Step 3) Go to the workspace where your dataset is located.

Step 4) Next to the dataset / semantic model, click on the Refresh Now button (the refresh icon).

This will initiate an immediate refresh of the dataset 🌟

All the reports or dashboards connected to this dataset will then be automatically refreshed to represent the latest data.

That’s how you manually refresh data in Power BI Desktop and Power BI Service.

Easy, right? 😎

Automatic Refresh

The science of Automatic Data Refreshes is different for Power BI Desktop and Power BI Service.

Power BI Desktop

Power BI Desktop doesn’t allow you to configure scheduled data refreshes 🤔

However, it has the Automatic Page Refresh feature that enables an active report page to query for new data for DirectQuery sources only.

With the Automatic Page Refresh feature, you can choose from two refresh types:

Fixed Interval:

Allows you to refresh data and update all visuals on your report based on a constant interval such as certain minutes or seconds. Every time this interval passes, the data source is queried and the data/visuals are refreshed. This is like setting a refresh schedule for your Power BI dataset ⌛

Change detection:

Under this refresh type, visuals on a page are refreshed based on changes detection in the data rather than a specific interval. However, you must select how frequently Power BI checks for changes 🕵️‍♀️

Automatic Page Refresh is only available for DirectQuery Sources. It will not be available for other data sources.

Kasper Langmann, co-founder of Spreadsheeto

Here’s how you set up Automatic Page Refresh in Power BI Desktop:

Step 1) Select the report page for which you want to enable automatic page refresh

Step 2) Go to the Visualizations pane > Formatting button (a paint roller icon).

Step 3) Scroll down the pane to find the Page Refresh section.

The Automatic Page Refresh button has to be toggled to “On” for the Page Refresh to be set up.

Then select the Page Refresh type (Auto Page Refresh or Change Detection) and set up the refresh options (refresh time / refresh frequency) depending upon the refresh type 🔮

That’s it, you’ve set up the Automatic Page Refresh in Power BI Desktop.

If you don’t see the Page Refresh button around, you are connected to a different data source than DirectQuery.

Kasper Langmann, co-founder of Spreadsheeto

Power BI Service

The steps do not change a lot for setting up automatic page refreshes in Power BI Service 🤿

Automatic page refresh can also be set up for reports in Power BI Service if the data source is DirectQuery.

Kasper Langmann, co-founder of Spreadsheeto

To set up Automatic refresh for a single report page in the Power BI service:

Step 1) Select the report page for which you want to enable automatic page refresh

Step 2) Go to the Visualizations pane > Formatting button (a paint roller icon).

Step 3) Scroll down the pane to find the Page Refresh section.

Step 4) Toggle the Page Refresh button to “On”.

Step 5) Select the Page Refresh type and the further input information depending upon the refresh type.

This is very much similar to the process followed for turning automatic page refresh on in Power BI Desktop 🧾

However, in Power BI Service, you can also configure a Scheduled Refresh by following the steps below.

Step 1) Go to the workspace where your dataset is located.

Step 2) Next to the dataset, click on the Schedule Refresh button.

Set up the options that come next to complete the configuration.

Things you must know

For refreshing data in Power BI, here are some key pointers that you must bear in mind 📝

Automatic Page Refresh needs to be set up for each page of the report and it only works with the DirectQuery data sources and not under Import Mode.
Ensure your data source credentials are updated.
Check network connectivity and firewall settings to avoid refresh failures.
You can only configure scheduled refreshes in Power BI Service.

Conclusion

Adopting an efficient data refreshing strategy in Microsoft Power BI is the key to delivering reliable and updated data insights 💪

If you understand how to refresh data manually or if you set up an automatic refreshing schedule that suits your needs, you can ensure your reports are accurate and reliable.

Choose between the flexibility of manual updates or automatic synchronization – Power BI offers them both to make sure your data is always up to date.