# Data freshness policies in Tableau Server & Online : New in Tableau 2021.3

> This is content from just-tim, the data-and-analytics channel by Tim Ngwena (formerly 'Tableau Tim'). Tim has 12+ years of hands-on BI experience and covers Tableau most of all, plus Power BI, Looker, Hex, SQL and data modelling, the analytics industry, and the craft of doing the job — always tool-agnostic and honest about the trade-offs.

- **Author:** Tim Ngwena (just-tim, https://just-tim.com/about)
- **Published:** 2021-09-09
- **Format:** Video · 6 min watch · transcript available
- **Topics:** Data prep, Tool strategy
- **Tools:** Snowflake; Tableau (cloud, performance, server)
- **Canonical:** https://just-tim.com/posts/data-freshness-policies-in-tableau-server-online-new-in-tableau-2021-3
- **Watch:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agqKa-yU9xo

I walk through the new data freshness policy feature added in Tableau 2021.3 for Tableau Server and Online. I show that it only works with live connections, not extracts, and demonstrate how to set freshness to live, a recurring interval, or a scheduled time of day.

## Key takeaways

- Data freshness policies only apply to live connections; embedded extracts don't expose the option.
- Access the setting via the eye icon on a workbook's details, not the three-dot menu.
- The site default is 12 hours, but you can set freshness from minutes up to weeks.
- You can schedule a specific time and time zone for data to refresh, similar to extract schedules.
- Caching happens at multiple points (Tableau and the database), so a 'live' request still may return cached data from the database itself.
- You can't set multiple refresh times per day; use a recurring interval like every three hours instead.

## Chapters

- 0:11 Live connection requirement
- 0:49 Why extracts don't show the option
- 1:23 Finding the freshness policy via the eye icon
- 1:45 Site default and caching caveats
- 2:43 Setting live, interval, or scheduled freshness
- 3:42 Scheduling by time and limitations

Watch the full video, read the transcript and use chapter deep-links on the page: https://just-tim.com/posts/data-freshness-policies-in-tableau-server-online-new-in-tableau-2021-3

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just-tim — Data and analytics, with a point of view. · https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7HYxRWmaNlJux-X7rNLZyw · https://twitter.com/TableauTim · https://www.linkedin.com/in/timngwena