Let me be clear: I really like and support the updates that Rui Romano has been pushing the last years!
In short, it brings:
- Better support for CI / CD and source control
- Better integration for programmatic report updates, e.g. with LLM's
- More reliable merge outcomes with the PBIP and PBIR structures
With that being said, I do think some customers do not want to have preview features in production, so they will be cautious with the recent developments. Since the end of January, the PBIR format will be the default if you don't take action.
If you don't want to enable PBIR yet, or just want to know more about the transition, read on.
A little bit of background
Let's start with the basics, what is PBIP, TMDL and PBIR?
PBIP
PBIP turns Power BI into a real project instead of a single magic PBIX file. Files on disk, folders, source control that actually works. If you’ve ever tried to diff a PBIX and felt pain: PBIP is the fix.
TMDL
TMDL is the semantic model as text. Tables, measures, relationships: readable, reviewable, automatable. This is Microsoft finally saying “models are code”, not artifacts you click together and hope for the best.
PBIR
PBIR does the same, but for reports. Visuals, layout and interactions stored in a format that Git can understand. PBIX still exists, but the report inside it stops being a black box. That’s why PBIR becoming the default is a big deal.
PBIR does the same, but for reports. Visuals, layout and interactions stored in a format that Git can understand. PBIX still exists, but the report inside it stops being a black box. That’s why PBIR becoming the default is a big deal.
So, PBIP is the structure, TMDL is the model, PBIR is the report.
Together, they move Power BI away from file-based BI and closer to proper software development, whether you asked for it or not. 😊
And to be clear, PBIX is still here and not moving away either, I will expand on that later.
Why This Matters Now
PBIR will become the default report format starting January 25th, 2026 in the Power BI Service, with Desktop adopting it in March 2026, but it will still be in preview.
This will affect developers using PBIP workflows, admins managing enterprise tenants, and teams relying on legacy formats.
Because a lot of clients don't want to use preview features, you can opt out during preview: let me explain how and why you might want to...
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| M365 Message center PBIR announcement |
Legacy Format vs. Enhanced Report Format
The Legacy format is the older JSON-based metadata structure inside reports, which contains 1 big, unreadable JSON file for all things reports in your Power BI Desktop file, whether it's PBIX or PBIP.
This legacy format poses limitations on readability, CI/CD, automation, source-control and working with AI / LLM's.
This legacy format poses limitations on readability, CI/CD, automation, source-control and working with AI / LLM's.
As I mentioned earlier, and Microsoft is also explicit about that, PBIX isn't going away. It will still be the primary developer format.
What will change is the metadata inside a PBIX file: from PBIR-Legacy to the new PBIR structure.
Official Timeline
Changes will hit the service first, and Power BI Desktop later.
Power BI Service, starting January 25:
- New reports in the service will default to PBIR
- Existing reports will auto-convert to PBIR when edited and saved in the service
Power BI Desktop, starting with the March 2026 release:
- Desktop switches to PBIR as the default for both PBIX and PBIP-files. Until then, PBIR must be explicitly enabled in the preview features
General Availability (GA) & Beyond:
- PBIR remains in Preview during the transition and becomes mandatory at GA (right now: expected in Q3 of 2026, check the roadmap for latest info)
- At GA, PBIR-Legacy will be removed and PBIR will be the only supported report format
What You Need To Do Today For Opting Out
In Power BI Desktop:
- Disable the PBIR preview features (under Options > Preview features).
In Power BI Service (Tenant Setting):
- Turn off Automatically convert and store reports using Power BI enhanced metadata format (PBIR).
- Important: this tenant setting already existed for quite a few weeks but only took effect in the end of January 2026
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| PBIR tenant setting to opt out before GA |
What about rollback?
If a report is already converted to the new format, you can still go back, but you have to do it with a backup of your report. Backups are automatically created for you, both in Desktop and in the service, but they will only be available for a limited time window.
Desktop
In Desktop, a backup is automatically written to disk and kept for 30 days. Depending on which version you have, the location differs a little bit:
- Microsoft Store version:
%USERPROFILE%\Microsoft\Power BI Desktop Store App\TempSaves\Backups - Executable installer version:
%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Power BI Desktop\TempSaves\Backups
Service
When a report is automatically converted in the service, a backup in legacy format is retained for 28 days. You can restore it from the workspace in the report settings.
For both the desktop and service reverted versions, it won't prompt again to upgrade for that specific file.
Wrap-Up & Call-to-Action
While the transition to PBIP and PBIR in general is a good thing, and I'm already using it for most of my projects, there might be some clients that rather do not want to, or just aren't allowed to use preview features in production.
If you are in the last group, I suggest you:
- Check the Power BI Desktop preview settings
- Check the Tenant settings in the Fabric Admin portal
