Express Lint

Rename a measure or column without breaking visuals

Power BI

Reports connected live to a semantic model are not told about a rename. Their visuals keep the old name and show Something's wrong with one or more fields.

Reports on a live connection are not told

A report connected live to a published semantic model keeps the names of the fields its visuals use. Microsoft, quoted on the forum, says this is by design: the report is independent of the model and is not aware that a field was renamed.

So when you rename a measure in the model, a visual in another report that uses it breaks. The same thread reports that custom and conditional formatting on that field break too.

Source: Changing name of a measure results in broken visuals in related reports.

What the visual shows

The visual says Something's wrong with one or more fields. See details lists the fields that need to be fixed.

The page for that message:

Source: How to rectify this error: 'Something's wrong with one or more fields'.

What Fix this does

Fix this removes the broken column or measure from the visual, a Microsoft support reply on the forum says. To keep the visual as it was, replace the field by hand with the one under its new name.

Source: Reports show 'something's wrong with one or more field' after re deploying SSAS tabular model, Changing name of a measure results in broken visuals in related reports.

Inside one file

Forum users report that Power BI Desktop updates the visuals in the same file when you rename a field there. One reports that a measure renamed in an external tool did break its visual.

Microsoft Learn says Power BI keeps some bindings through a rename by the lineage tag of the object, such as in composite models. Without a lineage tag it falls back to the name, which can lose customizations.

Source: Rename Column or Table without breaking reports/dashboard, Changing name of a measure results in broken visuals in related reports, Lineage tags for Power BI semantic models.

Before you rename

Find the reports that connect to the model first. Impact analysis in the Power BI service counts the reports and dashboards a change to a semantic model might affect. It needs write permission, and it does not say which visuals use a field.

Source: Semantic model impact analysis.

Check a project in your browser

The Power BI Report Doctor reads a PBIP folder or .zip and lists the file and line to fix. Nothing is uploaded.

For a PBIP project, check the rename in Power BI Studio first. Check a change marks each visual in the project it would rewrite as Updated, and Apply downloads the project with them rewritten. Reports in other files still need the new name by hand.

Other guides

Sources

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