Sharing Power BI Report with non-Pro user

[Anonymous]

I have created a report in Power BI Desktop which I need to share with a team member who does not yet have a Power BI Pro or Premium license. When I share the .PBIX file with them over email or a shared network location, they are unable to view the Report, and get a message stating that they need a PowerBI Pro license to open the file. 

To the best of my knowledge, the report has no features which require Power BI Pro to load or use. The two data sources that it uses are a SQL server (via DirectQuery) which we both have access to on our shared network, and an excel table in a shared network location. I have published the Report to Service, but I don't think that should have any affect on the original .PBIX file. 

We have re-installed PowerBI Desktop for this user, and have confirmed that we both are operating the same version (release May 2020).

Is there an inherent block on opening content created in PowerBI Desktop by users with a Pro license for users without a Pro license, or are there features I can turn off in the report which would allow this user to view the content without a Pro license? 

To be clear, I know that there are more robust ways to share Reports through PowerBI Service and through embedding content. We are looking to share the .PBIX file in the interim while we wait for our IT department to grant the user a PowerBI Pro license. It is pressing that this user be able to see and interact with the report in the interim. We have previously shared .PBIX files in this way without issue, certainly between PowerBI Pro users but also between PowerBI Pro users and non-Pro users. Is this a new change or is there something to be done in formatting the file to enable it to be shared? 

Thank you for any insight on this particular issue. I was unable to find any details in the documentation or previous questions to answer this question. 

[acosantos]

Hi,

We have the same problem. A pop-up login is continuously opening and whenever we close the pop-up, it always opens another.

It just seems to have started happening now, with this version of PBI Desktop (May 2020).

Any idea about this?

Thanks.

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

We got resolution on this issue finally by having the user open Power BI Desktop seperately (with a new report), and then open the file through the File menu (File > Open). Glad to have a solution, but it would be great to see this inconsistency resolved, by allowing users to open the .pbix file directly. 

[v-xicai]

Hi @Anonymous ,

>>The datasources are an SQL database which both of us have read/write privileges for, and a single excel table in a shared network drive. 

From your words,  "a single excel table in a shared network drive" is referred that the excel table is saved in OneDrive for Business? How about try to delete this data source about the excel table, and try it again?

Best Regards,

Amy 

Community Support Team _ Amy

If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.

[Anonymous]

I have tried to remove the excel file with the same issue. Is this a feature of the newest release of PowerBI to make files incompatible? The file could not be opened with the April version fo Desktop, (error saying the user needed to update) but with the new version there is this issue. 

[Anonymous]

I should also say that previously we shared files as a team with Direct Queries to this same SQL server. This is what leads me to believe it is an issue with the latest release. I have not been able to identify anything in the documentation, so I came here. Any insights?

[parry2k]

@Anonymous it should work, if you sharing pbix file, it should open. What are the data sources in the file? I hope it is not using any Power BI dataset? Really interested to know what is going on. Any custom visuals?

[Anonymous]

The datasources are an SQL database which both of us have read/write privileges for, and a single excel table in a shared network drive. There are no PowerBI Datasets used in this file. 

There are a couple of custom visuals - would that prevent me from sharing? I thought that custom visuals were also available in the free version...

[parry2k]

@Anonymous it is a custom visual, remove that and then test.

I would ❤ Kudos if my solution helped. 👉 If you can spend time posting the question, you can also make efforts to give Kudos whoever helped to solve your problem. It is a token of appreciation!

⚡Visit us at https://perytus.com, your one-stop shop for Power BI related projects/training/consultancy.⚡

[Anonymous]

@parry2k Okay, I created a copy of the file with all custom visuals removed, and the problem persisted. 

The user gets a prompt to log in to Power BI Service, which they cannot close out of. The report begins to load, but is interrupted by the pop-up. They cannot x out of the pop-up, and they have to use task manager to close out PowerBI since they do not have  a PowerBI Service login.