Power BI Desktop freezes when saving

[VAMI]

Hello,

Starting today, Power BI Desktop freezes every time I try to save. 

This happend to me and at least one other colleague.

The freezing does not prevent the saving itself so far, but I need to restart Power BI Desktop after each time I save my Report.

Has anyone had a similar issue so far or any suggestion to resolve it?

[v-xiaoyan-msft]

Hi  @VAMI ,

If Power BI Desktop is frozen, you may check that:

1. Whether there are multiple processes running in the backend at the same time
2. Whether the data size is too large, the transformations and calculations are complex that you can try to perform them in Power BI Desktop, see: Optimization guide for Power BI 
3. Make sure your version is the latest one Download Microsoft Power BI Desktop from Official Microsoft Download Center

Best Regards,
Community Support Team _ Caitlyn

[taylorcmichel]

Hi @VAMI and @v-xiaoyan-msft , I'm experiencing this too, except it's freezing not only while saving -- it's also anytime there's basically any processing is happening. Anytime there's processing wherein the "Working on it..." pop up is prompted, it's basically a toss-up as to whether or not PBI desktop will freeze. Prime example, I was testing to see if this was reproducible in other areas, as this became a major issue during a new project at work and I wanted to make sure that the transformations and calculations I was working on in said project weren't causing the issue, so I created a brand new report and loaded in some clean entities from our DWH and simply deleted the auto-relationships between them and BAM -- freeze. I downloaded my original PBI desktop from the Microsoft store, so I'm pretty sure that ensures I always have the most up-to-date version of PBI desktop anytime it is updated. Literally *everything* was fine and dandy up until yesterday. And this is making it impossible to get anything done. Any and all help is greatly appreciated as I would really like to get back to full productivity.

[afkm]

Hi, Starting on 11th March 2023, Power BI Desktop (Version: 2.140.1454.0 64-bit (February 2025)) has also started to freeze almost every time I try to save and I have to end the process to exit. The 'working on it' splash screen freezes and I have to kill the process. I'm using only one excel file with 11000 rows, no DAX measures and two simple calculated columns using if logic.

[TrakyMcV]

This is also happening to me since yesterday. I have uninstalled the Desktop version (Feb-2025), cleared cache and reinstalled (Feb-2025) and still having problem. My solution so far is to just force quit once hitting save, and 90% of the time when reopening the file, previous changes have been saved. It is slowing down my work though to go through these hoops.

[VAMI]

Thank you @taylorcmichel, @afkm, @TrakyMcV for sharing you have a similar experience with Power BI Desktop at the Moment. For sure the ongoing Problem slows down productivity drastically. @v-xiaoyan-msft I am working on the newest Power BI Version, as this seems to be exactly the problem. An older installation on a remote desktop works just fine. I hope you can escalate this, so this gets fixed quickly, as the constant restarting is a huge pain. As my fellow commenters described this also happens at very light reports.

[MarcoLepper]

Hi, similar problem here with 2.140.1476.0 64-bit (Februar 2025), for me it's always the second save attempt that gets stuck.

[PBIdude]

Hi, also having this issue I have reinstalled BI Power BI Desktop and Cleared the Cache and this is still occurring.

[ChelseaTM]

Hello just reiterating the above as this is also happening to me. I tested it both in my big report and created a brand new small report and the same issue occured. Cleared the Cache and this is still occuring.

[MrNobody]

Same issue here. When the "Working on it" dialogue appears, Power BI Desktop freezes. I noticed the issue when I applied changes in Power Query (no save, just apply changes), but also when saving.

[afl68]

Hello everyone, i have the same problems [Version: 2.140.1476.0 64-bit (Februar 2025)]