Why do custom visuals need a network connection?

[User100]

Try this.

1) Create a PowerBI desktop document with at least 1 custom visualization.

2) Save it.

3) Close PowerBI.

4) Turn-off your network connection.

5) Launch the previously created PowerBI file saved in step 2.

6) You'll get an error with "Send a frown" (except you don't have a network connection so you can't send a frown 🙂

The most obvious solution is to turn your network connection back on. However, if you're in a location (like I was) that didn't have ANY network connectivity my custom visuals didn't appear, so no demo was possible. The standard visuals that ship with PowerBI appear but not the custom ones.

Why do custom visuals need a network connection?

Thanks!