Important: In Excel for Microsoft 365 and Excel 2021, Power View is removed on October 12, 2021. As an alternative, you can use the interactive visual experience provided by Power BI Desktop, which you can download for free. You can also easily Import Excel workbooks into Power BI Desktop.
Symptoms
Assume that you have Microsoft SQL Server 2012 SP1 PowerPivot for Microsoft SharePoint 2013 installed on a computer. When you render a Power View report that uses a PowerPivot workbook as its data source, slow performance might occur while the report is rendered.
Note The issue does not affect Microsoft SQL Server 2012 SP1 PowerPivot for Microsoft SharePoint 2010.Resolution
Cumulative update information
Cumulative Update 5 for SQL Server 2012 Service Pack 1
The fix for this issue was first released in Cumulative Update 5. For more information about how to obtain this cumulative update package for SQL Server 2012 Service Pack 1, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
2861107 Cumulative update package 5 for SQL Server 2012 Service Pack 1Note Because the builds are cumulative, each new fix release contains all the hotfixes and all the security fixes that were included with the previous SQL Server 2012 Service Pack 1 fix release. We recommend that you consider applying the most recent fix release that contains this hotfix. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
2772858 The SQL Server 2012 builds that were released after SQL Server 2012 Service Pack 1 was released
Workaround
To work around this issue, use one of the following methods:
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Reduce the complexity and number of sheets within the PowerPivot workbook.
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Limit the number of Excel sheets and the complexity of what is located on them. This alters the snapshots, and reduces the size of the MetaInfo field. Therefore, the performance of SQL query executions will be improved.
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Limit the number of items on the Power View report. The calls made to SharePoint increase if you add items to the Power View report. Therefore, by limiting the number of items on the report, the number of calls to the SharePoint Content database will be reduced.
Status
Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed in the "Applies to" section.