How to Refresh Data in Looker Studio

Nothing is more frustrating than looking at a dashboard you know is out of date. You’ve launched a new campaign or had a great sales day, but your Looker Studio (formerly Google Data Studio) report is still showing yesterday’s numbers. This article will show you exactly how to refresh your data in Looker Studio, covering both manual updates and automatic scheduling, so your reports are always timely and reliable.

Understanding How Looker Studio Handles Data

Before diving into the "how," it’s important to understand the "why." Looker Studio doesn't ping your data source every single time you or a colleague opens a report. Instead, to improve performance and keep costs down (especially for paid services like Google BigQuery), it uses a system called caching.

A cache is a temporary storage of your data. When you first load a report, Looker Studio fetches the information from your source (like Google Analytics or a Google Sheet) and stores a copy. For a set period, anyone viewing the report will see this cached version, making it load almost instantly. Once that time expires, Looker Studio will go back to the original source for a fresh copy.

The default cache duration depends on the connector:

• Google Analytics (GA4 & Universal Analytics): 12 hours
• Google Sheets: 1 hour
• Google BigQuery: 12 hours
• Google Ads: 12 hours

Caching is great for speed, but it’s the reason your report might not reflect real-time changes. The good news is you have full control over it.

Method 1: Manually Refreshing Your Data in a Report

If you need the most up-to-the-minute data right now, a manual refresh is the quickest way to get it. This is perfect for when you've just updated a Google Sheet or want to see the immediate impact of a new campaign launch.

Follow these simple steps:

1. Open the Looker Studio report you want to update.
2. In the top-right corner of the menu bar, look for the three vertical dots (the "More options" menu).
3. Click the three dots and select Refresh data from the dropdown menu.

That's it! Looker Studio will bypass the cache and fetch a fresh copy of the data directly from all the data sources connected to your report. Every chart and table will update with the latest information available from the source. Keep in mind that this only affects your current view, it doesn't change the underlying automatic refresh schedule for other viewers.

Method 2: Setting Up an Automatic Data Refresh Schedule

Manually refreshing works for one-off situations, but for most reports, you want the data to update reliably on its own. Setting up an automatic data refresh schedule ensures your dashboards are always current without you needing to lift a finger. This is managed at the data source level, not the report level. This means if you use a single Google Sheet in five different reports, changing its refresh rate will affect all five.

How to Edit the Data Refresh Schedule

Here’s how to configure the automatic data freshness setting:

1. From within your report, click on Resource in the top menu bar, then select Manage added data sources.
2. A list of all data sources used in the report will appear. Find the one you want to adjust and click its corresponding Edit link.
3. This will open the data source editor. Near the top, you'll see a section called Data freshness. Click on the current setting (e.g., "Every 12 hours").
4. A "Set data freshness" panel will open on the right. You can now choose how often you want Looker Studio to check for new data. Options typically range from "Every 15 minutes" to "Every 12 hours."
5. Select your preferred frequency and click the Set button.

The data from this source will now automatically update according to the schedule you’ve just set.

Choosing the Right Refresh Frequency

It can be tempting to set every source to refresh every 15 minutes, but that’s not always the best approach. Here’s a quick guide to choosing the right rhythm for your report:

• Every 15 minutes: Perfect for live-monitoring dashboards. Use this for tracking real-time website visitors from a Google Analytics report or monitoring flash-sale performance from a Shopify data source. Be mindful that this can increase costs for connectors like BigQuery that charge per query.
• Every hour: A solid middle ground for frequently updated operational dashboards, such as daily campaign performance or social media engagement trackers. It keeps data current without hammering your data sources.
• Every 4 or 12 hours: Ideal for most standard business reports. Financial summaries, weekly sales performance, or high-level executive dashboards don't usually need minute-by-minute updates. This frequency saves on resources and is often sufficient for strategic decision-making.

Troubleshooting: Why Isn't My Data Updating?

Sometimes, even after adjusting the refresh settings, your data still looks stale. This can be frustrating, but the problem is usually one of a few common culprits. Here’s a checklist to run through.

1. Reconnect Your Data Source

The most common issue is that Looker Studio has lost its authorization to access the data. This can happen if you change your password or if an account's security token expires.

• How to Fix: Go back to Resource > Manage added data sources. Find the problematic source and click Edit. At the top of the editor, click EDIT CONNECTION in the upper left. You'll be prompted to re-authenticate your account. Often, you may see a "Reconnect Data Source" prompt appear at the bottom of the screen as well.

2. Check Permissions

Did the person who originally connected the data source lose access? For instance, if a former employee used their Google account to connect a Google Sheet, and their account is now deactivated, the connection will break.

• How to Fix: You’ll need to reconnect the data source using credentials from someone who has current access. In the data source editor, choose EDIT CONNECTION and log in with an authorized account.

3. Review Third-Party Connectors

If you're using a third-party connector (like those for HubSpot, Facebook Ads, or others from the Looker Studio gallery), the refresh process can have two layers. The connector itself might have its own refresh schedule, separate from Looker Studio's cache.

• How to Fix: Check the settings for the third-party connector itself. You may need to trigger a refresh within its own platform or adjust its internal scheduling before the new data will be available for Looker Studio to pull.

4. Understand Your Source's Lag Time

Most platforms don't make data available instantly. Google Analytics, for example, can have a data processing latency of several hours. Even if you refresh Looker Studio, the very latest data might not have been processed by the source platform yet.

• How to Fix: There's unfortunately no "fix" for this—it's just how the data platforms work. Be aware of the expected delays from your source and set your stakeholders’ expectations accordingly. For GA4, this can be anywhere from 4 to 24 hours.

Best Practices for Data Freshness

Managing data refresh is more than just setting a schedule. Here are a few tips to ensure your reports are consistently reliable and easy to understand.

• Match Freshness to Purpose: Not every report needs real-time data. An annual financial summary doesn't need to refresh every 15 minutes. Align the data refresh rate with how the report is being used to save resources and avoid unnecessary processing.
• Add a "Last Updated" Timestamp: Prevent confusion by adding a small text box to your report that says when the data was last fetched. The easiest way to do this is to add a new data source like a simple Google Sheet that contains a single formula: =NOW(). Title the field "Date" and style it in your report. Every time the report cache is refreshed, this timestamp will update.
• Educate Your Viewers: Let your team know about the standard refresh rates. A simple note like "This report updates every 4 hours" printed at the bottom of the dashboard can save you from a lot of unnecessary questions and doubts about the data's accuracy.
• Check Blended Data Sources: If you are blending data from multiple sources (e.g., Google Ads and Google Analytics), the data freshness for the blended chart will be tied to the least frequently updated source. If your Ads data refreshes every 12 hours and your Analytics data refreshes every hour, your blended visualizations can only be as fresh as the Ads data.

Final Thoughts

Mastering data refresh in Looker Studio is a simple but powerful step toward creating trustworthy, actionable dashboards. By understanding caching and using a combination of manual and scheduled refreshes, you can ensure that the insights you and your team rely on are always relevant and up to date.

While Looker Studio's controls are powerful, the process of connecting data, troubleshooting stale connections, and managing refresh settings across dozens of different reports is still a huge time sink. At Graphed, we streamline this entire process. We connect directly to all your sources - from Google Analytics and Shopify to your CRM - and power live dashboards that update automatically. This frees you up to find insights and make decisions instead of spending your time managing data pipelines and refreshing reports.