The core issue is data staleness; the report is not reflecting recent updates from its source. The most direct and common cause for this is a failure in the data refresh process. This process is fundamentally dependent on the report's connection to the source database. The analyst should first verify the status of the database connection, including its configuration, credentials, and the success of the last scheduled data refresh. A failed, misconfigured, or unscheduled refresh is the most probable reason the new data is not appearing in the report.

A. Event log: An event log is a secondary diagnostic tool. It is more efficient to first check the component directly responsible for data updates (the connection/refresh) before searching through logs.

B. User privileges: The user can view the report, which means access privileges are not the problem. The issue is with the timeliness of the data itself, not the user's ability to access it.

D. Report corruption: Corruption would typically manifest as loading failures, visual errors, or an inability to open the report, not as the display of perfectly structured but outdated information.

1. Microsoft Power BI Documentation: In troubleshooting data refresh scenarios

the primary steps involve checking the data source connection. "A common reason for refresh failures is that Power BI can't sign in to your data sources... Check your data source credentials in the dataset settings." This confirms that the connection is the first point of inspection for stale data.

Source: Microsoft Learn

"Troubleshoot refresh scenarios

" Section: "Refresh fails because of sign-in problems."

2. Lemahieu

W.

vanden Broucke

S.

& Baesens

B. (2018). Principles of Data Management: Facilitating Information Sharing. Cambridge University Press. The text describes the Business Intelligence (BI) architecture where reports query a data warehouse or database. It states

"The data loading step is typically executed on a periodic basis (e.g.

nightly) to provide the business users with recent information." A failure in this loading or refresh process

which depends on the connection

is a primary cause of outdated reports.

Reference: Chapter 10

"Business Intelligence

" Section 10.2.1

"Data Warehouse Architecture."

3. Kimball

R.

& Ross

M. (2013). The Data Warehouse Toolkit: The Definitive Guide to Dimensional Modeling (3rd ed.). Wiley. The book emphasizes the importance of the Extract

Transform

and Load (ETL) system for populating the data warehouse that BI tools query. A failure in any part of this pipeline

starting with the connection to the source (Extract)

will result in stale data for end-users. Verifying the data pipeline's operational status is a primary troubleshooting step.

Reference: Chapter 2

"The Data Warehouse/Business Intelligence Architecture

" Section on "The ETL System."