Automatic Updates

When you place a field on a shelf, Tableau generates the view by querying the data source. If you are creating a dense data view that involves many fields, the queries might be time consuming and significantly degrade system performance. In this case, you can instruct Tableau to turn off automatic updates.

By default, automatic updates are turned on and the toolbar button is highlighted . However, it is sometimes more efficient for Tableau to execute the queries you need for your final view, rather than for every intermediate step required to compose that view. You can turn off updates by pressing F10 or the Automatic Updates toolbar button .

While automatic updates are turned off, you can still update the view at any time by clicking F9 or the Run Update on the toolbar. This way, you can update your data view at an intermediate step. It is possible to enter an invalid state when automatic updates are turned off. When this happens, the view is desaturated and invalid commands are disabled. The view and commands become available again when you click Run Update on the toolbar.

For example, the view below has automatic updates turned off. When the aggregation for Profit is changed from a summation to an average, the view is desaturated to let you know that you have made a change to the view that has made the current view invalid.