Scheduled Refresh & Gateways

A published report shows the data that was imported the last time it was refreshed. If nobody refreshes it, Monday's report still shows last Friday's sales, and people quietly stop trusting it. Scheduled refresh in the Power BI service fixes this by re-running your Power Query steps on a timetable. But the service lives in Microsoft's cloud, so it can only refresh data it can reach. For data inside your office network, it needs a bridge called an on-premises data gateway.

In this lesson you will set up scheduled refresh, decide whether you need a gateway, move files to the cloud to avoid one, and show readers exactly when the data was refreshed.

How refresh works

When an imported semantic model refreshes, the service connects to each data source with stored credentials, runs every query, loads the new data into the model, and recalculates calculated columns and tables. Measures need no refresh; they are calculated when visuals load.

You can refresh in three ways:

• Refresh now on the semantic model in the service, for a one-off update.
• Scheduled refresh, on a timetable.
• Republishing from Desktop after refreshing there (fine while developing, not as a daily routine).

DirectQuery models do not import data, so they do not need scheduled data refresh; each visual queries the source when it loads.

Setting up a schedule

In the workspace, open the semantic model, select Refresh > Schedule refresh (or open its Settings), and work through the sections:

1. Gateway and cloud connections: choose a gateway if one is needed (see below).
2. Data source credentials: sign in to each source once; the service stores the credentials.
3. Refresh: switch Configure a refresh schedule on, choose Daily or Weekly, set the time zone to (UTC+05:30) Chennai, Kolkata, Mumbai, New Delhi, and add time slots.
4. Tick Send refresh failure notifications to the owner (and add a colleague).

Limits documented by Microsoft (November 2026):

When something goes wrong, open Refresh > Refresh history to see each attempt's status, duration and error message.

Do you need a gateway?

The question is simple: can Microsoft's cloud reach the data over the internet?

An on-premises data gateway is a Windows program installed on a computer inside your network. It makes outbound connections to the cloud, so no inbound firewall ports need opening. Microsoft offers three options:

• Standard mode: managed by gateway admins, shared by many users and data sources; supports DirectQuery and live connections, and can run as a cluster for high availability. This is what companies use.
• Personal mode: for one user refreshing their own import models only; cannot be shared. Some connectors, such as MySQL, are not supported in personal mode.
• Virtual network (VNet) data gateway: a Microsoft-managed service for data secured inside an Azure virtual network; nothing to install.

A gateway machine must be switched on and connected at refresh time. A gateway on someone's laptop that goes home at 6 pm is a common reason for 6 am refresh failures. Install it on an always-on server, keep it updated, and make sure the drivers your sources need (for example MySQL Connector/NET) are installed on that machine too.

Avoid a gateway: put files in the cloud

For a small business, the simplest fix is to keep source files in SharePoint Online (or OneDrive for work or school) instead of C:\KesarMart. Then the service reaches them directly. Replace the Folder connector from Get Data: Excel, CSV & Folders with the SharePoint folder connector:

let
    Source = SharePoint.Files("https://kesarmart.sharepoint.com/sites/Sales", [ApiVersion = 15]),
    MonthlyCsv = Table.SelectRows(
        Source,
        each Text.Contains([Folder Path], "/Shared Documents/Monthly/")
            and Text.Lower([Extension]) = ".csv"
    )
in
    MonthlyCsv

SharePoint.Files lists every file in the site's document libraries, so filter on Folder Path and Extension before combining, exactly as you did for a local folder. Sign in with your organisational account when asked; the service uses the same type of sign-in for refresh.

Show when the data was refreshed

Readers should never have to guess. Add a tiny query called Last Refresh that records the time each refresh runs. The service runs refreshes in UTC, so convert to Indian Standard Time explicitly:

let
    RefreshedIST = DateTimeZone.RemoveZone(
        DateTimeZone.SwitchZone(DateTimeZone.UtcNow(), 5, 30)
    ),
    LastRefresh = #table(type table [Refreshed At = datetime], {{RefreshedIST}})
in
    LastRefresh

DateTimeZone.UtcNow returns the current UTC time, SwitchZone moves it to UTC+05:30, and RemoveZone keeps a plain date and time. Then show it with a measure:

Last Refresh Text =
"Data refreshed: "
    & FORMAT ( MAX ( 'Last Refresh'[Refreshed At] ), "dd mmm yyyy, hh:mm AM/PM" )
    & " IST"

A card then reads something like "Data refreshed: 03 Nov 2026, 06:05 AM IST". Combine it with the "Sales up to" measure from Publishing, Sharing & Dashboards: one says when the refresh ran, the other says how recent the data in the source was.

Common mistakes

• Gateway on a laptop. Refresh fails whenever the laptop sleeps. Use an always-on machine, or move the data to the cloud.
• Expired passwords. Changing a database password breaks refresh until you update the credentials in the semantic model settings.
• Wrong time zone. A schedule left in UTC runs at 11:30 am IST instead of 6 am. Choose the India time zone.
• DateTime.LocalNow() for the refresh time. In the service it returns the server's time, not India's. Convert from UTC explicitly.
• Ignoring failure emails. Four failures in a row switch the schedule off. Fix the cause and switch it back on.

Key points

• Scheduled refresh re-runs your queries in the service: up to 8 times a day in Pro, up to 48 with PPU or capacity.
• Refresh pauses after two months of no views and switches off after four consecutive failures.
• On-premises data (local files, office servers) needs an on-premises data gateway; standard mode for teams, personal mode for one user.
• Files in SharePoint Online or OneDrive for work or school, and cloud databases, need no gateway.
• Record the refresh time in IST with DateTimeZone.SwitchZone and show it on every report.