At long last, we have confirmation that the Cache Shared Nodes Fix is live in Excel. If you're not familiar with this issue, it's one of the most important changes implemented in Power Query in quite some time. You can read more about the issue in my guest post on Rob Collie's blog here.
What versions of Excel will get the Cache Shared Nodes Fix?
The Cache Shared Nodes fix is available to:
- Office 365 subscribers
- Excel 2019 (non-subscription) versions
This leaves you with the inefficient multi-refresh challenge if you are using Excel 2010, Excel 2013 or Excel 2016. My understanding is that Microsoft does not intend to back port to these versions. What that means to you is that in in order to get the fix, you will need to upgrade to a newer version.
Do I have the Cache Shared Nodes Fix?
You need to be running Excel 16.0.10726.* to have the update. To check if you have it, go to File --> Account --> About Excel. Your current version and build are listed at the top:
Office 365 Insider's Build
Excel 2019 Professional Plus (non-subscription)
How do I update my Excel 365/2019 to get the Cache Shared Nodes Fix?
For users of Excel 2019, make sure your Windows Update settings include the advanced option to get updates for other Microsoft Software. If your version is not updated yet, it should come through on your next update cycle.
For users of Office 365, you should actually already have the fix in place. If not, go to File --> Account --> Update Options.
(There is a possible exception for Office 365 if you're running on the Deferred Channel for updates. If that's the case, you either need to get onto a more current channel, or... wait until the deferred channel also has the fix.)
5 thoughts on “Cache Shared Nodes Fix is Live”
Hello Ken,
Thanks a lot for this post. This is great news.
I have Microsoft Excel for Office 365 MSO 16.0.10730.20264. So, I figure that I got the update, and I'd like to time-test its performance if possible.
Do you have a sample file where you have tested the Refresh All time using the old Excel version and the new version and compared the difference?
If so, can you share it/post your test results?
Can you also post a link to the sample file so that other Excel users can time the Refresh All in their PCs (I realize that it might depend on each user's PC, processor, memory, etc, but since we are talking about "one order of magnitude" in terms of expected performance improvement (in the sample file mentioned in Rob Collie's post of July 13, 2017...from 75 sec with Excel vs 9 sec with Power BI), the results should be in "the ballpark".
Hi Ken, thanks for the update. Any idea if this version: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/semi-annual-channel-2019#version-1808-january-8 will have this update? This is what my company is about to upgrade to, and I can't tell by the other articles if it will have it or not.
Thank you,
Russell
Hi Russell,
As that is build 10730.*, I believe it should.
The example file for Rob's post was actually a client file based against their SQL server. For that reason, I can't post it.
And unfortunately, I don't have any before after examples, although I can tell you how to set up your own. Build it in Excel, then import that file into Power BI desktop. Time the refresh in both and it should be similar. This fix was ported to Power BI desktop almost two years ago.
Keep in mind that this doesn't affect all queries build in this manner. But if you've got one that pulls from a database and then runs into further queries along, that should give you an idea if the fix has been applied.
Thank you Ken - will let you know in a few weeks if things get better or not.