How to Recover Unsaved Power BI File

It's a sinking feeling every data professional knows: you’ve spent hours perfecting DAX measures and designing visuals, only for Power BI Desktop to crash before you could hit save. All that hard work seems to have vanished. But before you start the painful process of rebuilding from scratch, take a deep breath. Power BI has a built-in safety net that can often recover your unsaved report. This guide will walk you through the recovery process step-by-step and show you how to prevent this from happening again.

Understanding How Power BI's Auto-Recovery Works

Power BI Desktop includes an auto-recovery feature that is enabled by default. It quietly works in the background, automatically saving a temporary version of your PBIX file at regular intervals. This feature is your first line of defense against unexpected shutdowns, application freezes, or system crashes.

When Power BI crashes, it leaves this temporary file behind in a special folder on your computer. Your unsaved M queries from Power Query, new measures in your data model, and visual layouts on your canvas are likely stored in this file. The key is knowing where to look.

It’s important to understand that this isn’t a perfect, real-time backup. The file is saved periodically, so any changes you made in the few minutes right before the crash might not be included. Still, recovering 95% of your work is infinitely better than starting over from zero.

Step-by-Step: How to Recover an Unsaved Power BI File

If Power BI has crashed and didn't automatically prompt you with a recovery option upon relaunching, you'll need to find the temporary saves folder manually. Follow these steps carefully to locate your lost work.

Step 1: Check the Document Recovery Pane First

In the best-case scenario, Power BI knows it shut down unexpectedly. The next time you open the application, you may see a yellow banner or a "Document Recovery" pane appear on the left side of the screen. This pane will list one or more auto-saved files that are available for recovery.

• If you see this pane, click on the file that corresponds to your lost report.

• Power BI will load the recovered version.

• Review the report to confirm it’s the correct one and contains most of your work.

• Go immediately to File > Save As and save it as a proper PBIX file in a safe location. Do not continue working on the recovered version without saving it first.

If this pane doesn't appear, don't worry. Move on to the next step to find the file yourself.

Step 2: Close Power BI and Navigate to the TempSaves Folder

Before you start digging through folders, make sure Power BI Desktop is completely closed. Having it open could interfere with the recovery process or potentially delete the temporary files when it closes properly.

The auto-recovery files are stored in a specific temporary folder. To get there, open File Explorer and paste the following path into the address bar:

C:\Users\[YourUserName]\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Power BI Desktop\TempSaves

Be sure to replace [YourUserName] with your actual user name on your computer. For example, if your user name is "jsmith," the path would be C:\Users\jsmith\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Power BI Desktop\TempSaves.

Note: The AppData folder is often hidden by default in Windows. If you try to navigate to it manually and can't see it, you'll need to enable "Show hidden items." In File Explorer, click the "View" tab at the top, then check the box for "Hidden items."

Step 3: Identify and Secure the Recovery File

Inside the TempSaves folder, you may see one or more files. These are your auto-saved reports. They will likely have generic names, such as Untitled(18925).pbix, and might be located within a folder named FT_...

To find the correct file, right-click in a blank space within the folder, go to Sort by > Date modified, and select "Descending." This will bring the most recently saved file - likely your lost report - to the top of the list.

Once you've identified the file you want to recover:

1. Do not open it directly from this folder. This can sometimes cause issues.

2. Right-click the file and select "Copy."

3. Navigate to a safe, permanent location like your desktop or your Projects folder.

4. Right-click in the permanent location and "Paste" the file. This creates a safe copy for you to work with.

Step 4: Open and Save Your Report

Now that the recovered file is in a safe location, double-click to open it with Power BI Desktop. The application should load your report with most (if not all) of your recent changes intact.

Take a moment to check your Power Query transformations, DAX measures, relationships, and canvas visuals. Once you've confirmed that your work is there, the absolute first thing you should do is save it properly.

Click File > Save As, give your report a meaningful name (e.g., "Monthly Sales Report - October 2024"), and save it in your project folder. You have now successfully recovered your file.

What if the TempSaves Folder is Empty?

Discovering that the TempSaves folder is empty can be disheartening, but it's helpful to understand why this might happen. The most common reasons include:

• Power BI was closed correctly: When you successfully save and close Power BI, it cleans up its temporary files. The recovery file is only preserved after a crash.

• Auto Recovery might be disabled: This is very rare as it's a default setting, and you'd have to turn it off purposely. You can verify it's enabled by going to File > Options and settings > Options > Auto Recovery.

• You were working on a brand-new file: If you had just opened a new blank file and it crashed before you ever saved it for the first time, Power BI might not have had a chance to create a temporary save file for it.

Unfortunately, if the TempSaves folder is empty and the recovery pane didn't appear on startup, your unsaved work is likely lost. This highlights the critical importance of adopting preventative habits to avoid finding yourself in this position again.

Best Practices to Prevent Future Data Loss

Recovering your file is great, but an even better strategy is not needing to do it in the first place. By incorporating the following habits into your workflow, you can minimize the risk of losing important work in the future.

1. Save Early, Save Often

This might sound cliché, but it's true. Make a habit of pressing Ctrl + S every ten to fifteen minutes, especially after completing a complex measure or visualization layout. Get into the habit of saving your project immediately after creating it and giving it a meaningful name and location.

2. Use Version Control (OneDrive, SharePoint, Git)

Saving your PBIX files in a OneDrive or SharePoint folder is a game-changer for safety. These cloud storage services offer built-in version history. If you make changes to your report and want to go back to an earlier version (even from days or weeks ago), you can simply roll back to a previously saved version of the file without losing anything. This protects you from file corruption, accidental changes, and system crashes.

3. Create Manual Backups

Before making major changes to a report - like adding a new data source or overhauling the data model - it’s wise to create a duplicate copy first. Simply use Save As to save your file with a version number in the name like "Quarter Report v1.0.pbix". Then, when you work on "Quarter Report v1.1.pbix," you have a "release" copy to revert to if you need to.

Final Thoughts

The gut-wrenching feeling of losing an unsaved Power BI file is something we’ve all experienced, but it doesn’t have to be devastating. Knowing where Power BI Desktop's temporary files are stored (in the TempSaves folder) can often mean you can recover most of your work with just a few clicks. By combining this technique with good habits like frequent saving and using solutions like OneDrive, you can ensure your data and work remain safe, even when unexpected shutdowns occur.