How to Refresh a Pivot Table in Google Sheets

Use the Refresh key or button

It sometimes takes some time for the new data to be processed and loaded to your Google Sheets Pivot Table in your browser. A simple press on the F5 button of your keyboard or the refresh button in your browser can often work. 

But what if it still doesn’t work? Then it’s time to troubleshoot your Pivot Table. Read on below to discover why your Pivot Table is not refreshing and how to fix it.

Check the range of data

In creating a Pivot Table, you have to specify the range of data. Chances are, the new data are appended as new rows below the existing rows, and thus may not be covered by the range. Here are the steps to check the range of data:

Step 1: Hover your pointer to the Pivot Table.

Step 2: An Edit button will appear below it. Click it. 

Step 3: The Pivot table editor sidebar will appear. The data range is shown in the upper portion of the sidebar.

How to increase data range

You can adjust the data range in two ways:

Method 1: Add rows to the range. For example:

From A1:H628 to A1:H1000

The disadvantage of this method is that you have to adjust the range again when the number of rows exceeds 1000.

Method 2: Using the same example:

From A1:H628 to A:H

The advantage of this method is that it accounts for additional rows. However, its disadvantage is that extra rows with zero (0) value will appear in the Pivot Table:

How to Hide Rows:

You can hide them by adding a filter:

Step 1: Scroll down the Pivot table editor sidebar to find the label Filter.

Step 2: Click the Add button, then select the column where you want to apply the filter. For our example, it’s the date column.

Step 3: Click the drop-down box. It lists the unique values detected in the selected row. Uncheck (Blanks) and click OK. 

The blank row has now been cleaned:

Check Filters

If your data range covers the added rows but they are not added yet to the Pivot Table after refreshing, it is also possible that your current filters have excluded the new rows. To check the rows, simply scroll down the Pivot table editor to find the filters. 

How to adjust the filter to include new rows

Step 1: Click the drop-down box for the filter.

Step 2: Click the unchecked rows. Click Ok.