Glossary
What is refresh?
A refresh is the process of retrieving data from the source again, so that a report or semantic model shows up-to-date figures. In Power BI, you can schedule refreshes; a failed refresh means a dashboard shows outdated figures.
Refresh explained
A Power BI report with imported data shows the state as of the last refresh, not the current state in the source. You schedule refreshes in the Power BI service, for example every morning. With a Pro licence you can set up to eight scheduled refreshes a day, and more on Premium or Fabric capacity. If the source sits on your own server, you need a gateway.
A refresh can fail, for example because of an expired password, a changed column in the source or a timeout. The report then keeps showing the old figures, and that is exactly the danger: nobody notices that the figure is from yesterday or last week.
So make sure it is visible when the data was last updated, and that someone is alerted when a refresh fails. Align the timing with the data warehouse load, so the report does not refresh before the new data has arrived.
Example
Acme Groothandel's data warehouse is loaded at 05:00 and the semantic model refreshes at 06:00. When the load failed one morning, the branch managers saw on their dashboard that the figures were from the day before yesterday and held off on their orders.
Refresh in ENABLE
Every dashboard in ENABLE shows a "Last refreshed" status; there is no manual refresh button. Platform management (Data Analytics) also runs a daily Power BI health check to monitor whether refreshes succeeded, with a Healthy, Attention or Error status.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
How often can a Power BI report refresh?
With a Pro licence you can set up to eight scheduled refreshes a day. On Premium or Fabric capacity it can be more often; with DirectQuery or a live connection, refreshing imported data is not needed.
Why does a Power BI refresh fail?
Common causes are expired credentials for the source, a gateway that is offline, changed tables or columns in the source and timeouts with large volumes of data. The refresh history in the Power BI service shows the error message.
What is the difference between refresh and DirectQuery?
With refresh, the data is reloaded into the model at set times. With DirectQuery, the report fetches data straight from the source on every view, so no refresh is needed, but the report can be slower.
Further reading
- PlatformPower BI monitoring: health and usageRefresh status for everyone; health and usage monitored daily by platform admins.Read more
- SolutionPower BI dashboard portal: share dashboards securelyShare your Power BI dashboards securely in your own portal, with role-based access.Read more
- IntegrationPower BI embedded portal: share dashboards securelyPower BI reports embedded in your own portal, with access by role and RLS.Read more
- ResourcesGlossary of data, AI and Power BI termsWhat is a service principal, row-level security, a semantic model, text-to-SQL or RAG? Short, clear definitions of terms around data, Power BI and AI.Read more
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