How to Automatically Refresh and Publish Power BI

You’ve built the perfect Power BI report, a beautiful dashboard that visualizes all your key metrics. But a few hours later, it's already out of date. This article will show you how to set up an automatic refresh for your Power BI reports, so your data is always current without you having to lift a finger.

Why Automate Your Power BI Refreshes?

Manually updating your reports is more than just an inconvenience, it's a bottleneck. Every minute you spend exporting new data, opening Power BI Desktop, clicking "Refresh," and republishing is time you could have spent analyzing that data and making decisions. Automating this process brings three huge advantages:

Time Savings: Stop the repetitive cycle of manual updates. Set your schedule once and let Power BI handle the rest, freeing you up for more strategic work.
Data Accuracy: Scheduled refreshes ensure everyone on your team is looking at the most current data possible. This eliminates decisions based on outdated reports and keeps everyone on the same page.
Consistency: Automation removes the risk of human error. No more forgotten updates on a busy Monday morning, your reports refresh like clockwork, reliably and consistently.

Understanding the Key Components

Before jumping into the setup, it’s helpful to understand the two core pieces that make automatic refreshes work: the Power BI Service and the Data Gateway.

Power BI Service (The Cloud)

This is the cloud-based side of Power BI where you share and view reports. While you build reports in Power BI Desktop (the application on your computer), the scheduling and automation all happen in the Power BI Service after you've published your report. If your data sources are all cloud-based (like Google Analytics, Salesforce, or an Azure SQL database), you often won't need anything else. The Power BI Service can connect to them directly.

On-Premises Data Gateway (The Bridge)

What if your data lives on a local computer or a server inside your company’s network? This could be an Excel file on your hard drive or a local SQL Server database. The Power BI Service, being in the cloud, can't directly and securely access that local data.

This is where the On-Premises Data Gateway comes in. Think of it as a secure bridge or a bouncer at the door. You install this small application on a computer that is always on and connected to your network. It securely transfers your on-premises data to the Power BI Service in the cloud, allowing your reports to be refreshed automatically.

There are two modes for the gateway:

Standard mode: This is the recommended option for teams and organizations. It can be shared by multiple users and used for Power BI, Power Apps, and other services.
Personal mode: This mode is for a single user. It runs as an application on your personal computer and only works when you are logged in. It’s useful for initial testing but isn't a reliable solution for team-wide reports.

Step-by-Step: How to Set Up a Scheduled Refresh

Ready to set it and forget it? Here’s the play-by-play for getting your automatic refresh up and running.

Step 1: Publish Your Report to Power BI Service

Your journey starts in Power BI Desktop. Once your report is complete, you need to publish it to the cloud.

In Power BI Desktop, go to the Home tab.
Click the Publish button.
You'll be prompted to sign in to your Power BI account if you haven't already.
Choose a destination workspace (like "My Workspace" or a shared team workspace) and click Select.
Once it's finished, you'll see a success message with a link to open the report in Power BI Service.

Everything from this point forward happens in your web browser within the Power BI Service.

Step 2: Install and Configure the Data Gateway (If Needed)

If your report uses any on-premises data sources (like a local Excel or CSV file), you'll need the gateway. If all your sources are cloud-based (e.g., Google Sheets, Salesforce), you can skip to Step 3.

In the Power BI Service, click the settings gear icon in the top-right corner and select Download > Data Gateway.
Download and run the installer for a Standard Gateway.
Follow the on-screen instructions. You'll need to sign into your Power BI account to register the gateway.
Give your gateway a name and create a recovery key. Important: Store this key somewhere safe! You'll need it if you ever have to restore or move your gateway.

The gateway needs to be installed on a computer that is always on and connected to the internet. A server is ideal, but a dedicated desktop machine can also work.

Step 3: Configure Your Data Source Credentials

Next, you need to tell Power BI how to securely log in to your data sources from the cloud.

In Power BI Service, navigate to the workspace where you published your report.
Find your dataset (it will have the same name as your report and an orange icon) and click the three-dot menu (...) next to it. Select Settings.
Expand the Gateway connection section. If you installed a gateway, you should see it listed here. Select it.
Expand the Data source credentials section. You’ll see a list of the sources used in your report.
For each source, click Edit credentials and enter the required login information (e.g., username/password for a database, an account key, or simple authentication for a file path).

Once you’ve successfully entered the credentials for all your sources, you'll see a green checkmark, and you’re ready for the final step.

Step 4: Set Your Schedule

This is where you tell Power BI when and how often to refresh your data.

In the same Settings page for your dataset, expand the Scheduled refresh section.
Toggle the switch to turn it On.
Choose your Refresh frequency (Daily or Weekly).
Select your Time zone.
Click Add another time to choose the specific times you want the refresh to run. The number of refreshes you can schedule per day depends on your license (8 times for Pro, 48 times for Premium).
Make sure to check the box under Send refresh failure notifications. This will email you if a scheduled refresh fails, so you can investigate any issues immediately.
Click Apply.

That’s it! Your report will now update automatically according to the schedule you set. You can also trigger a manual refresh at any time by going to the dataset and clicking the "Refresh now" icon.

Common Troubleshooting Tips

Sometimes, a refresh will fail. It happens. Here are a few of the most common reasons why:

The Gateway is Offline: If the computer running your gateway is turned off, asleep, or disconnected from the internet, the refresh will fail. Ensure the gateway machine has a reliable connection and power source.
Expired Credentials: Database passwords often have an expiration policy. If your password changes, you'll need to update it in the data source credential settings in the Power BI Service.
Data Source Not Found: If you moved or renamed a local file (like an Excel worksheet), the gateway won't be able to find it. Make sure the file paths are stable and that the gateway has permission to access them.
Changes in the Data Source: If someone changed a column name or deleted a table in the source data, the query in your report will break. You'll need to open the report in Power BI Desktop, fix the transformation steps in the Power Query Editor, and republish.

Final Thoughts

Setting up scheduled refreshes in Power BI is a game-changer for anyone who regularly works with data. By publishing your report, connecting it to its sources via the gateway, and setting a schedule, you replace manual drag with automated reliability, giving you time back to focus on finding insights, not just updating them.

While mastering Power BI's technical setup is a powerful skill, sometimes you need to skip the learning curve entirely. At Graphed, we've designed a platform that handles all this complexity for you. Instead of worrying about gateways, credentials, or scheduled refreshes, you just connect your data sources - like Google Analytics, Shopify, and dozens of others - with a few clicks. Then, you can create real-time, live-updating dashboards simply by describing what you want to see in plain English. For marketers and business owners who just need clear answers from their data, we believe asking a question should be all it takes to get an up-to-date visualization, and that's precisely what Graphed provides.