When refreshing PPM Express Power BI report packs in Power BI Desktop, you may encounter a "Reference" error.
In this article, we will review the possible causes and how to resolve this.
Why this happens
PPM Express report packs are optimized for performance and, by default, use parallel table loading. The Default setting is up to 6 concurrent jobs, which works well in Power BI Service.
However, it can cause “reference” errors in Power BI Desktop and is related to how Power BI Desktop handles parallel data loading. This happens because Power BI Desktop may struggle with query dependencies when several are refreshed simultaneously.
How to fix
To resolve the issue, you need to limit parallel loading to a single thread. For this, perform the following:
1. Open your report in Power BI Desktop.
2. Go to: File -> Options and settings -> Options.
3. In the Options window, navigate to Data Load -> Parallel loading of tables.
4. Change it from Default to One (disable parallel loading).
5. Click OK. Refresh the report again.
Important recommendations
The refresh should complete without errors. However, the refresh time will increase because queries are processed sequentially rather than in parallel.
After you finish working in Power BI Desktop and before publishing the report to Power BI Service, set the 'Parallel loading of tables' setting back to Default.
This ensures faster refresh performance in Power BI Service.