In the last few days I connected the dots between several requests I received, and I've found that when custom visuals are created and removed frequently in a report, the browser (or the process CefSharp.BrowserSubprocess.exe used by PBI Desktop) grows in memory until it becomes unusable.
The native visuals don't seem affected by that.
Crashing Power BI seems incredibly easy:
- Create a table with 10 rows in a new PBIX file
- Import the Chiclet slicer custom visual from the store
- Create a Chiclet slicer applying the column with 10 rows
- Copy and paste the slicer 9 times around the same page
- Duplicate Page1
- Save the file (just in case)
- Open Task Manager and switch back and forth between page 1 and page 2 for a while
- The process CefSharp.BrowserSubprocess will grow in memory
- Switch between one page and another will slow down progressively, usually after 2GB of RAM consumed by the process the response time is unmanageable
- Publish the file on powerbi.com
- Switch back and forth between page 1 and page 2 for a while
- This time your browser will grow in memory usage...
If I use a regular slicer, the issue is not visible. In reality, I see 4-5 KB lost every time I switch between pages, but it's a fraction of the cost of the custom visuals.
I tried with other custom visuals, made by different developers, and I've got the same result.
I have seen in Power BI forum several threads related to the presence of the CefSharp.BrowserSubprocess process, but I didn't see an explanation of the reason, which is not really related to that process considering that the issue also happens on a regular browser for published reports.
To my eyes, this is some memory leak issue related to custom visuals when the user switch between pages of the same report. But, of course, I could be wrong, so in this case any further information would be useful.
Is this something that other noticed?
Any comment from MS?
Thanks,
Marco
