I love Power BI.
It’s powerful, flexible, and honestly feels like a superhuman suit when it all works.

But let’s not pretend everything is smooth.

There are still things in Power BI that are just… frustrating.
Some of them have been around for years. And every time you hit them, they make you wonder: “Why is this still a thing in 2024?”

7 Things That Still Suck in Power BI

So here are 7 things I hate about Power BI — not just as a creator, but as someone who teaches this stuff to hundreds of students.

1. Month Sorting Is Still a Headache

You build a calendar table.
You create a simple matrix with Year and Month.
You expect January to December, right?

Nope.
You get August, December, July… total chaos.

Sure, you can fix it with a sort column and index — but for someone coming from Excel, this just feels unnecessary.
Why not let us define a custom list like Excel does and sort based on that? Easy, intuitive, done.

2. The “Wrong Total” Problem in DAX

You write a measure.
It works beautifully at the row level.
But the total? Makes no sense.

You’re not alone — even Greg Deckler gave up trying to explain this after 4,000 days.

To get the correct total, you have to write a separate measure that builds a pseudo table using SUMMARIZE, then iterate over it with SUMX.
It works, but it’s complicated — and frankly, Power BI should give us a better way.

3. Debugging DAX = Pain

In Excel, you hit F2 and see where everything comes from.
In Power BI? You stare at a formula. It stares back. Nothing happens.

To debug DAX, you have to:

• Enable performance analyzer

• Copy the DAX query

• Paste it into DAX Studio

• Decode cryptic stuff like DS0Core, Subtotals, and Index

It’s a rabbit hole — and for someone new to DAX, it’s a terrible experience.

4. Auto Date/Time Is Quietly Breaking Your Model

Power BI quietly creates hidden date tables behind the scenes.
Drag a date column into a visual? Boom, you’re using the hidden auto date table.

You don’t even know it’s there until your measures break.

Turn it off in the options? Sure.
But again — why not give users a warning? Or at least some UI cue that you’re about to use auto date? It bloats the model and gives wrong results.

5. No Proper Keyboard Shortcuts

Want to create a new measure?
Good luck pressing Alt → H → N → M.

We need proper, single-keyboard shortcuts — just like in Excel.
Let me hit Ctrl + Shift + M to make a measure.
Let me switch between tabs with keys.

Even better — let us customize the quick access toolbar. Most people don’t need Save or Redo up there. Give us something we can actually use.

6. Panel Clutter Is Real

Try opening the Fields pane, Format pane, Bookmarks, Performance Analyzer — and still see your report.

Power BI gives you 25% of your screen to work on, the rest is panels.

Let us unstack them.
Drag them to another screen.
Minimise them when not needed.

And please — unstack the DAX formula bar. Looking at a 30-line measure in 4 lines of space? Not fun.

7. Table Column Widths Still Can’t Be Auto-Adjusted

This one’s simple:
Let me select all columns in a table visual and auto-fit their widths.

Even Excel does this.
In Power BI, I’m still doing Shift + Arrow dance, trying to get the widths right manually.

Come on Microsoft — this should’ve been fixed years ago.

Final Thoughts

Power BI is amazing.
It’s changed how we build reports, create data models, and tell stories with data.

But these little things?
They pile up.
And they make the experience clunky — especially for new users coming from Excel.

Let’s hope Microsoft listens.

If you’ve been annoyed by any of these things — you’re not alone.

What’s your biggest Power BI pain point?
Drop it in the comments
Let’s make some noise so these things finally get the attention they deserve.