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10. Parameters in Power Query (and Other Kinds of Parameters)

10.8 Incremental Refresh with RangeStart and RangeEnd (Overview)

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Incremental refresh refreshes only recent data (for example the last 10 days) instead of the full history. This makes refresh faster for large Orders tables.

Steps in Power BI

  1. Create two parameters named exactly RangeStart and RangeEnd, both of type Date/Time (current values such as 01-01-2025 00:00 and 01-02-2025 00:00).
  2. Filter the Orders query on Order DateTime: >= RangeStart and < RangeEnd. Use >= on one side and < on the other, so no row is loaded twice. The filter should fold to the source.
  3. Close & Apply. In Report or Table view, right-click the Orders table in the Data pane › Incremental refresh.
  4. Turn it on and set, for example: Archive data starting 3 Years before refresh date; Incrementally refresh data starting 10 Days before refresh date. Optional settings: Get the latest data in real time with DirectQuery (capacity feature), Only refresh complete days, Detect data changes.
  5. Apply and publish. The Service creates partitions on the first refresh.

Good to know

The source should support query folding (SQL databases do). With plain files, the filter works but every file is still read. Once published with incremental refresh, you cannot download the .pbix back from the Service.

Incremental refresh ha advanced topic aahe. Atta basic samajla tari purese aahe – job madhe garaj lagel tevha detail madhe shikal.

Ravindra Bagale's Tip

Sagalyat common incremental refresh chuk mhanje a RangeStart/RangeEnd filter that doesn't fold, so Power BI downloads the whole table for every partition. Check View Native Query on the filter step. Also remember that the policy only takes effect after publishing, not in Desktop. Chuk karu naka!