How to Discard Changes in Power BI

Accidentally broke a measure or added a visualization that threw your entire Power BI report out of whack? It happens. The good news is that you don’t have to live with the mistake or start over from scratch. This tutorial will walk you through several practical methods for discarding changes in both Power BI Desktop and the Power BI Service, so you can backtrack with confidence.

Understanding When and Why You'd Discard Changes

Reverting your work isn't just about fixing critical errors. It's a normal part of the report-building process. Here are a few common scenarios where discarding changes is the best move:

• Experimenting Freely: You want to test a new visualization, format, or connection without committing to the changes. Discarding lets you create a temporary "sandbox" to play in.
• A DAX Formula Gone Wrong: You’ve been tweaking a DAX measure for the last 30 minutes, and now it's breaking several other visuals. Instead of untangling the mess, it's often faster to revert to the last working version.
• Accidental Filtering: While presenting, you or a colleague may apply several filters or selections that hide the report's original, intended view.
• Unwanted Transformations in Power Query: You may have merged, removed, or changed columns in Power Query, only to realize later that you needed the original data structure.

Knowing how to handle these situations will save you time and frustration, making you more efficient and confident in your development process.

Method 1: Closing Without Saving in Power BI Desktop

This is the simplest and most common way to discard all changes made during a session. If you haven't hit the save button yet, Power BI Desktop is holding all your modifications - new visuals, DAX measures, relationship changes - in temporary memory. To get rid of them, you just have to close the application.

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. Navigate to the top-left corner and click on the File menu.
2. From the dropdown, select Close. Alternatively, you can just click the 'X' button in the top-right corner of the window to close the application entirely.
3. Power BI will display a confirmation dialog box that asks, "Do you want to save your changes?"
4. Click the Don't Save button.

That's it. Power BI will close, discarding every change you made since the last time you saved. The next time you open that .pbix file, it will be in the exact state it was in before your recent edits. This is your go-to "emergency escape" when an experiment has gone awry.

Method 2: Undoing Specific Actions in Your Current Session

What if you don't want to discard everything? Maybe you just want to reverse the last five or ten actions you took. Power BI offers built-in tools for this, allowing for more granular control than simply closing without saving.

Using Undo and Redo in the Main Report View

Just like in Microsoft Word or Excel, Power BI Desktop has Undo and Redo functionalities. You can find these as small, curved arrows in the Quick Access Toolbar at the very top of the window, or you can use the classic keyboard shortcuts:

• Undo: Ctrl + Z
• Redo: Ctrl + Y

This is perfect for quickly reversing actions like moving a visual, changing a color, applying a filter in the 'Filters' pane, or editing a report title. You can press Ctrl + Z multiple times to step back through your recent actions.

Important Note: The undo history is session-based and is completely wiped clean the moment you save your report. If you make a mistake, save the file, and then close it, you won't be able to open it again and "undo" that mistake.

Removing Applied Steps in Power Query Editor

Power Query is where your data transforms happen, and it has its own powerful "undo" system called Applied Steps. Every transformation you perform - from changing a column's data type to filtering rows - is recorded as a distinct step in a list.

This makes reverting data transformations incredibly easy and transparent.

How to Remove a Step:

1. From Power BI Desktop, click on the Transform data button in the Home ribbon to open the Power Query Editor.
2. Select the query (the table) you want to modify from the list on the left.
3. On the right side of the screen, you will see a pane titled Query Settings. Inside this, there's a list under APPLIED STEPS.
4. This list shows the entire history of transformations for that query, from top (oldest) to bottom (newest). For example, it might say:
5. To discard a change, simply find that step in the list and click the small 'X' icon next to its name. For example, if you want to undo the filtering, click the 'X' next to "Filtered Rows."

The preview data in the main window will instantly update, showing you what your data looked like before that step was applied. This is a non-destructive way to correct data prep mistakes without having to start the entire import process over. Once you're happy, click Close & Apply in the top-left to send the corrected data back to your report.

Method 3: Reverting to a Previously Saved Version of a File

This method is your safety net for when you've saved a change you now regret. Since clicking 'Save' overwrites your file and clears the undo history, Ctrl + Z won't work. In this case, you need to rely on a version history system existing outside of Power BI itself.

Using Version History in SharePoint or OneDrive

Storing your .pbix files on OneDrive for Business or SharePoint is a best practice for a reason: automatic versioning. Every time you save the file, these services automatically save a copy in the background, creating a timeline of your work you can revert to at any time.

How to Restore a Previous Version:

1. Navigate to the SharePoint site or OneDrive folder where your Power BI file is saved using your web browser.
2. Locate the .pbix file.
3. Click the three dots (…) next to the file name to open the context menu.
4. Select Version history from the menu.
5. A pane will appear listing all the saved versions of the file, each with a timestamp and the name of the person who modified it.
6. Hover over the version you want to restore and click the three dots that appear next to it.
7. You will see options to either Restore (which makes that old version the current one) or Download (which saves that version as a separate file on your computer).

This feature is a lifesaver for collaborative projects or simply for protecting your own work from irreversible mistakes.

Method 4: Resetting Reports in the Power BI Service

Finally, what about changes made to a report after it has been published to the Power BI Service? Report consumers and editors alike have ways to get back to a clean slate.

For end-users simply viewing a report, applying filters and clicking on visuals can drastically alter the view. To revert to the original published state, look for the Reset to default link located in the menu bar at the top of the report.

Clicking this link will instantly remove all active filters, slicers, and cross-highlighting, returning the report to the exact view its author intended.

If you have permissions to Edit a report in the Power BI Service and you’ve made some changes, the process is similar to Power BI Desktop. Your changes are not permanent until you save them. If you want to discard your edits, simply navigate away from the report page by clicking on a workspace or another report in the navigation pane. Power BI will ask if you want to save your changes, just click Don't save.

Final Thoughts

Knowing how to discard changes in Power BI is a fundamental skill that frees you to experiment and build fearlessly. From closing without saving in Desktop to removing specific steps in Power Query or restoring an old version from SharePoint, there's always a way to undo an error and keep your project on track.

Wrestling with complex tools and manual processes like these can pull you away from getting actual insights. We created Graphed to simplify this process entirely. Instead of undoing complex steps, you just refine your request in plain English, allowing you to experiment and build dashboards without the fear of messing up a fragile report.