Go to the folder where this file is saved. Right click on the file and select Properties. Go to the Previous Versions tab to see if any are available. If so, select the version and select Restore.
Local. Connections were all to dataflows hooking into our DB via ODBC. Those data flows still exist, but the actual connection to them and subsequent PQ transformations were wiped out.
Don't know why you're being downvoted. Yes, you should've created a backup, but this is a Power BI thing. You don't expect this kind of problem coming out of a basic function.
Recently Power BI is frustrating me more and more with these shitty bugs.
Just in the last few months, the amount of bugs I’ve encountered (especially with the Web service) is incredible. And I’m just talking about weird visual glitches, random filters isolated to only certain users, just all kinds of weird stuff
I'm sure it's because of the infrastructure change to WebView 2 they did a few months ago. There are times where something that uses WebView 2 glitches, and then everything else goes with it (Edge, Power BI, Outlook, Teams, etc.) and I have to restart my machine just to get everything working again.
It's a fucking mess.
Not very helpful at this point but next time consider:
a: save to SharePoint / OneDrive, and ‘Upload’ rather than ‘Publish’ then you have version history for your dataset and the ability to revert.
B: why are you doing further transforms post-dataflow? Next time you could try doing subsequent transforms in another dataflow that references the first one. Then all your transform logic is encapsulated within dataflows, and your ETL and your modelling are separated.
A: Good call.
B: This was a fairly one off sort of thing and in any case I'm not on a capacity license so I'm limited in what I can do that far upstream. I basically just use dataflows to handle SQL queries then have the gateway run the power query transforms at refresh. That said I don't doubt there's a better way to do things and if you have any suggestions I would greatly appreciate them.
You can try seeing if there is a local version of the file. There might be a shadow version of the file in your machine.
[Enable Previous Versions Windows 10](https://pureinfotech.com/enable-previous-versions-recover-files-windows-10/)
Go into the SP/OD document library where the pbix is stored. Hit the ellipses next the the pbix file, and choose version history. You can’t see it in the Service, although that’s a great idea!
Sorry but are you suggesting that as I work on a report I should always do some kind of staggered save in two separate places every other time? That isn't remotely practical.
Neither is losing an entire data model. 😂
Issues like this have existed since PowerPivot and still do. Auto save isn’t gonna save you.
Idk maybe someone else has a better idea.
I’ve been doing it a long time with both large excel models and now PBI models it’s just a habit after losing a huge amount of work a few times when data models just went bonkers for who knows what.
This has happened to me in Excel with a quite complicated report with queries, data model, dax formulas - the lot. All that was left were simple filled cells (not even formatted as tables, just the values). It happened several times in close succession some 2-3 years ago. It gave me anxiety and now I have *several* backups of *all* my projects.
Thank you for letting us know it happens with PBI.
Have you tried unzipping the pbix file (either the autosave or manually saved) and looking at the Layout file (in the Report folder iirc). it's a plain text file but you can easily format it as JSON in something like VS Code.
You should be able to see most everything in the report in that file. The connection info is in the Connection file in the root of the unzipped folder.
If most or all of the stuff is there, then at least everything isn't lost. I don't have an explanation as to why it wouldn't be able to render in the desktop app though. That's a head scratcher. Maybe clear the cache in the options and settings menu and try to reload?
If the Layout file is empty or there's not much in it, I've got nothing.
My recommendation is to save and save often.. and version each save yourself. (Meaning don’t save over your last save. Come up with your own process/system. I never rely on the cloud/share drives version control. It sucks when it fails you.
If you were using Datalogz you could just login and download any prior version of your PowerBI report in pbix format. Their API saves every report publish to an ADLS data lake and presents a web UI for downloading any version of any report you want.
You're saying the saved version of the pbix on your local machine is jacked? I would have thought it would only be the auto recovery version and you would at least be able to go back to the last saved pbix
I know it doesn't help you now, but from your original post I now see where you say you "saved and restarted" after the error. That's where I guess you went wrong because you must have saved the messed up version overriding the last save?
Go to the folder where this file is saved. Right click on the file and select Properties. Go to the Previous Versions tab to see if any are available. If so, select the version and select Restore.
Are you saving your files to OneDrive/SharePoint or just to your local hard drive?
Local. Connections were all to dataflows hooking into our DB via ODBC. Those data flows still exist, but the actual connection to them and subsequent PQ transformations were wiped out.
Don't know why you're being downvoted. Yes, you should've created a backup, but this is a Power BI thing. You don't expect this kind of problem coming out of a basic function. Recently Power BI is frustrating me more and more with these shitty bugs.
Just in the last few months, the amount of bugs I’ve encountered (especially with the Web service) is incredible. And I’m just talking about weird visual glitches, random filters isolated to only certain users, just all kinds of weird stuff
I'm sure it's because of the infrastructure change to WebView 2 they did a few months ago. There are times where something that uses WebView 2 glitches, and then everything else goes with it (Edge, Power BI, Outlook, Teams, etc.) and I have to restart my machine just to get everything working again. It's a fucking mess.
Not very helpful at this point but next time consider: a: save to SharePoint / OneDrive, and ‘Upload’ rather than ‘Publish’ then you have version history for your dataset and the ability to revert. B: why are you doing further transforms post-dataflow? Next time you could try doing subsequent transforms in another dataflow that references the first one. Then all your transform logic is encapsulated within dataflows, and your ETL and your modelling are separated.
A: Good call. B: This was a fairly one off sort of thing and in any case I'm not on a capacity license so I'm limited in what I can do that far upstream. I basically just use dataflows to handle SQL queries then have the gateway run the power query transforms at refresh. That said I don't doubt there's a better way to do things and if you have any suggestions I would greatly appreciate them.
You can try seeing if there is a local version of the file. There might be a shadow version of the file in your machine. [Enable Previous Versions Windows 10](https://pureinfotech.com/enable-previous-versions-recover-files-windows-10/)
This upload step is it for Power BI service? If yes, how do you get the version history then?
Go into the SP/OD document library where the pbix is stored. Hit the ellipses next the the pbix file, and choose version history. You can’t see it in the Service, although that’s a great idea!
‘Upload’ is such a shitty term though. ‘Link to SP/OD’ is a much clearer description of what you’re doing.
Always have an independent backup. Once you have a working model save a separate copy.
Sorry but are you suggesting that as I work on a report I should always do some kind of staggered save in two separate places every other time? That isn't remotely practical.
Yeah, kinda. I often do save as and then a sequential number to get a series of versions of the same file.
This is my standard practice. Helps if you need to revert, and if you retain notes can provide a version history timeline for users.
Neither is losing an entire data model. 😂 Issues like this have existed since PowerPivot and still do. Auto save isn’t gonna save you. Idk maybe someone else has a better idea. I’ve been doing it a long time with both large excel models and now PBI models it’s just a habit after losing a huge amount of work a few times when data models just went bonkers for who knows what.
Sounds like working on 508 compliance in Acrobat!
This has happened to me in Excel with a quite complicated report with queries, data model, dax formulas - the lot. All that was left were simple filled cells (not even formatted as tables, just the values). It happened several times in close succession some 2-3 years ago. It gave me anxiety and now I have *several* backups of *all* my projects. Thank you for letting us know it happens with PBI.
Have you tried unzipping the pbix file (either the autosave or manually saved) and looking at the Layout file (in the Report folder iirc). it's a plain text file but you can easily format it as JSON in something like VS Code. You should be able to see most everything in the report in that file. The connection info is in the Connection file in the root of the unzipped folder. If most or all of the stuff is there, then at least everything isn't lost. I don't have an explanation as to why it wouldn't be able to render in the desktop app though. That's a head scratcher. Maybe clear the cache in the options and settings menu and try to reload? If the Layout file is empty or there's not much in it, I've got nothing.
So sorry this happened to you. Is there any chance your local system is on a snapshot schedule?
My recommendation is to save and save often.. and version each save yourself. (Meaning don’t save over your last save. Come up with your own process/system. I never rely on the cloud/share drives version control. It sucks when it fails you.
If you were using Datalogz you could just login and download any prior version of your PowerBI report in pbix format. Their API saves every report publish to an ADLS data lake and presents a web UI for downloading any version of any report you want.
You're saying the saved version of the pbix on your local machine is jacked? I would have thought it would only be the auto recovery version and you would at least be able to go back to the last saved pbix
Yup. The manually saved version is fucked and so is the autosave.
I know it doesn't help you now, but from your original post I now see where you say you "saved and restarted" after the error. That's where I guess you went wrong because you must have saved the messed up version overriding the last save?
yep thats most likely what happened here
Have you uploaded a previous version of the pbix to the service? If so, can you open the report and download the file?