Solved: Recovering report configuration after data source ... - Page 2

Keviniano · 05-09-2025 04:11 PM

Hello there!

I've come up with a couple cases with Looker Studio where a report's data source changes enough that charts entirely lose the data element they were configured with. The setup pane becomes a series of red "invalid" values, and, importantly, there is no information retained about what the old data element was named.

When this happens it can be very painful rebuilding the report. There appears to be no way to export a reports definition to JSON or something like that, so I'm a bit stumped as to how best to protect against this risk.

Thanks in advance for any insight.

a_aleinikov

Hi @Keviniano ,

Unfortunately, Looker Studio doesn’t offer a native way to export full report definitions (like JSON) for backup.

To reduce risk:

Before changing data sources, make a full copy of the report (File → Make a copy).
Document key chart configurations manually or in a shared doc.
Test new data sources in a duplicate report first before applying to your main one.

These steps won’t fully automate recovery but help minimize loss if something breaks.

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Recovering report configuration after data source changes