How to Make Data Refresh in Power BI: 1-Min Guide

How to Make Data Refresh in Power BI

Updated on:

May 12, 2026

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Use this interactive demo to learn how to manually refresh data in Power BI Desktop.

Quick summary

Refreshing data in Power BI Desktop reconnects your report to all linked data sources and reruns Power Query transformations to load the latest values. This process ensures your dashboards and visuals always reflect up-to-date information without republishing the entire report.

Steps

Open Power BI Desktop and navigate to your desired dataset.
Go to the Home tab in the top navigation ribbon.
Click the Refresh button to trigger a full data refresh of the Power BI report.
Power BI will reconnect to all data sources and rerun Power Query transformations to pull in the latest data.

📌 Why this matters

Knowing how to manually refresh data in Power BI Desktop is essential for analysts and business users who need accurate, up-to-date reports before sharing insights with stakeholders. The built-in Refresh feature reconnects Power BI to all linked data sources and reruns Power Query transformations in a single click, eliminating the need to rebuild or republish reports. This capability helps teams maintain data integrity across dashboards and reduces the risk of decisions being made on stale information. For organizations relying on Power BI for business intelligence, mastering data refresh workflows is a foundational skill that directly improves reporting accuracy and efficiency.

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