Why can't I see the "Report Data" window when creating reports?

I'm creating RDLC reports in VS10. When the program is NOT running, I can see the toolbox, and add controls to the report, but the "Report Data" pane is nowhere to be found, so I can't fill the controls on my report. However, if I run the solution, the "Report Data" pane appears, and I can drag fields on to my report, however the Toolbox contains no controls while I'm running. So, I've had to put the controls on to my report while not running, run the project and while it's running I can put the fields in....

anyways, how do I get the Report Data pane to stay visible while the project is not running?

The most common answer to this problem is to go to the Data menu and choose Show Data Sources. This option does not appear for me.

The Show Report Data Pane keyboard shortcut did work for me: CTRL+ALT+D. There is nothing in the menus that I could find that does this same thing.

After I accidentally closed this window, I took an hour to find how to bring it back up.

The right answer is indeed: View-->Report Data (ctrl+alt+D)

The tricky part: the 'Report Data' entry does not always appear in the 'View' dropdown. Make sure that you have a report open, and some element of the report selected.

If you're not 'in the report', the entry disappears from the menu.

Hi I faced the same issue in VS2008, I tried based on the post 8 (Thanks to the "Tricky part" section in that)

The (Ctrl+Alt+D) combo did not work there in VS2008, but after opening the Report file(rdlc) I browsed on the View menu and found out that View->Toolbars->Data Design is the solution for that.

Upon opening that we get around 4 icons of which the "Show Data Sources" section brings the "Website Data Sources" section which fetches all Entities, Typed DataSets etc.

The keybord shortcut is (Shift+Alt+D).

The twisty part here is the "Data Sources" section available with the Server Explorer toolbar doesnt bring up any stuff but the "Website Data Sources" brings all the needed., can somebody explain that to me.

I was also same problem in Visual Studio 2013, Then Suddenly got an Idea.. Click on Report to make focus on it. Simple Press Alt+Ctrl+D

I had the same problem, but in c# 2012 I closed the "report data" and I couldn't find it and I finally found a solution to this issue.

This is my method:

VIEW >> TOOLBARS >> CUSTOMIZE >> COMMANDS ... select from the "Menu bar" .. VIEW.

OK now in the "Controls" find the "REPORT DATA", select it and MOVE it UP, close the menu. After that select a file.rdlc and click on the "View" ... OK Finally will be appeared "REPORT DATA"...

I had to go through a bit more to force a refresh in VS 2008.

First, there is a Data Sources pane/toolbox (menu trail = Data > Show Data Sources), and a Report Data Sources dialog (menu trail = Report > Data Sources). I had trouble with the Data Sources pane reverting to an earlier property list every time I opened a certain report; it was as if the report designer was overwriting the data definition with the report's cached version thereof.

To remedy this, I had to:

1. Exclude the report from my project to stop the build errors
2. Clean & rebuild my project
3. Refresh the Data Sources pane & confirm I could see the new fields
4. Re-include the report and open the report designer with the Data Sources pane pinned in view
5. (This is the key) Drag one of the new fields anywhere onto the report surface

Number 5 forced the report's internal XML copy of the data definition to refresh. Immediately after that, I could build again.

If the report designer is opened, Report Data Pane can be enabled using view menu.

 View -> Report Data

It is in visual studio. In the designer page, it is on in the menu bar, there is XTRAREPORTS field. You can show up panels using it

Open report in Report designer

Go to View menu -> Report data

First of all select report file with rdlc extension and then go to View > Report Data

I was in a weird situation in VS2019 where choosing View -> Report Data did nothing, and pressing Ctrl-Alt-D did nothing. The Report Data window had just strangely appeared on the left for no reason, when it was supposed to be on the right, and so I had moved it back to the right and then made it auto-hide. Not long after that it disappeared and would refuse to reappear. Possibly it was off-screen but hard to say.

To fix, I had to resort to using Window -> Reset Window Layout which restored its position and I was able to use it again.

please go to

View > Toolbars > Customize

then select "Data" categories then click "Show data source" in command panel

"Data" menu will be seen in menu panel. click to get the website data source