# Data quality indicators

> 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:** 2020-08-12
- **Format:** Video · 4 min watch · transcript available
- **Topics:** Data prep, Tool strategy
- **Tools:** Tableau (data management, data quality warnings, server)
- **Canonical:** https://just-tim.com/posts/data-quality-indicators-in-tableau-desktop-2020-3
- **Watch:** https://www.youtu.be/YsA9NS-Qd5c

I demonstrate the data quality warning feature added in Tableau 2020.3, which surfaces server-side warnings inside Tableau Desktop. I show how the warnings appear when connecting, how to change them on the server, and how to refresh Desktop to pick up the updated metadata.

## Key takeaways

- Data quality warnings require the Data Management add-on enabled on your Tableau Server, which carries an additional cost.
- Warnings created on Tableau Server or Online now appear in Tableau Desktop when you connect to the same data source.
- The Desktop warning icon doesn't display the full warning text in the tooltip, so you still have to go to the server to read the details.
- Different warning types (deprecated, under maintenance, stale, sensitive) plus a high-visibility setting control how the icon appears.
- Desktop won't show updated warnings until you close and reopen, or disconnect and reconnect, as the metadata only refreshes when re-adding the data source.

## Chapters

- 0:00 What data quality warnings need
- 0:49 Seeing warnings in Tableau Desktop
- 1:41 Changing the warning on the server
- 3:01 Refreshing Desktop to pick up changes

Watch the full video, read the transcript and use chapter deep-links on the page: https://just-tim.com/posts/data-quality-indicators-in-tableau-desktop-2020-3

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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