SAP Knowledge Base Article - Public

2324158 - Refresh button grayed out in Crystal Reports Viewer

Symptom

  • Refresh button inactive.
  • Unable to refresh a report in Crystal Reports Viewer.
  • Why is the refresh button grayed out in Crystal Reports Viewer?
      
      
  • Note: Images and data in this SAP Knowledge Base Article is from SAP internal systems, sample data, or demo systems. Any resemblance to real data is purely coincidental.

Environment

  • SAP Crystal Reports Viewer 2016
  • SAP Crystal Reports Viewer 2020
  • SAP Crystal Reports Viewer 2025

Reproducing the Issue

  1. Open a report with saved data in Crystal Reports Viewer.
  2. Notice the refresh button is grayed out, and it is not possible to refresh the report.
        
     
    CR Viewer - 01.png

Cause

  • The reason the refresh button is grayed out in Crystal Reports Viewer, it's because the report was open from a local drive.
  • Crystal Reports Viewer is a tool to view report with saved data only, and do not have any database connectivity functionality, and therefore cannot refresh any reports directly.

Resolution

  • In Crystal Reports Viewer 2016, 2020:
      
    • The only way to refresh a report is to connect Crystal Reports Viewer to the SAP BI Platform, and then select a report stored on the SAP BI Platform. In this scenario, it is possible to refresh the report, because the report is actually not refreshed by Crystal Reports Viewer, but by the SAP BI Platform, and the end result is a report with saved data that is sent from the SAP BI Platform to Crystal Reports Viewer, which is then displayed in Crystal Reports Viewer.

    • For more information on Crystal Reports Viewer, see the following SAP Knowledge Article:     
      1300699 - Crystal Reports Viewers Limitations when viewing a report created in Crystal Reports
       
        
  • In Crystal Reports Viewer 2025:
      
    • There is no refresh button, because from this version it is no longer possible to refresh a report stored on the SAP BusinessObjects BI platform. It is only possible to view reports with saved data in Crystal Reports Viewer 2025. 
    • To refresh a report use Crystal Reports 2025, or use SAP BusinessObjects BI 2025

See Also

2286450 - Report does not refresh in Crystal Reports Viewer

Keywords

CRV, CR Viewer , KBA , BI-RA-CRV , SAP Crystal Reports Viewer , Problem

Product

SAP Crystal Reports viewer 2016 ; SAP Crystal Reports viewer 2020 ; SAP Crystal Reports viewer 2025