Extracts Do Not Match the Data Source After Incremental Refreshes

Issue

After an incremental extract refresh completes, not all the changes in the data source appear in the updated extract. For example, the new rows that have been added to the data source, are appended at the bottom of the extract. The changes that have been made to rows in the data source, do not show up in the extract.

Environment

Tableau Server
Tableau Desktop
Extracts

Resolution

Use one of the following workarounds:

Fully refresh the extract. For more information, see Refreshing Extracts.
Add a new column to the database that is updated with a new unique value any time a row is changed.
Tell Tableau to use this field as its key field in the incremental extract.
This will trigger Tableau to recognize that a row has changed and re-append the row to the end of the extract, saving time updating the extracts.

Cause

The ability to modify or delete existing records in an extract is not currently available.

Additional Information

To voice your support for the inclusion of this feature in a future product release, add your vote to the following Community Idea: Allow Incremental Refresh to Modify Rows