App Not Retaining Some Users

[Bgladding]

I have two workspace apps with permission granted to specific users / groups.  However, two users are continually deleted from the app.  Both users are external and have O365 and PBI Pro licenses; their setup is identical to two other external users who are successfully added to the apps user list.  All users are members of the Workspace.  All users have view permission (except for me with Admin).  All users show up in group lists in O365 groups.

This problem exists in two different Apps with the same two users.

So - when adding the users to the app, it first appears that they are successfully added.

After I publish the App, when I exit and return to Update the App, the two users will then appear as blanks in the users' list:

Although they do not have access to the App, their membership in the App Workspace remains intact.  They are unable to search for the App.  They are unable to access the App using the direct link provided when the App was published.

I have tried removing these two users from all groups and memberships and then added them back in.  The result is the same every time.

[Bgladding · Accepted solution]

I think this may be solved - all external users in my tenant are migrated from Microsoft ID accounts before they had migrated to their own O365 tenant from an on-prem Exchange.  Microsoft IDs allowed them to access SharePoint hosted Excel reports on my tenant.  When they moved from on-prem to O365, their user id's remained the same (so, O365 id was user1@company.com and their Microsoft ID was also user1@company.com).  So - even though I was able to see them as users in my system, the PBI system did not see them as O365 clients.

The other users who have been sucessful in consuming the Apps were added after the migration to O365.

By removing the two users entirely from PBI, as Users in my Admin Portal, and as users in SharePoint, then re-inviting them back to SharePoint (which populated them back into my Admin Portal), I was able to add them back into the PBI app successfully.

Luckily, there are only a few users I work with that have this migration hangover.  It's a bit frustrating because the Admin Portal doesn't distinguish between a Microsoft ID and an O365 account when referenceing external users.

@v-qiuyu-msft - this may explain behaviour in https://community.powerbi.com/t5/Issues/Multiple-retries-required-to-update-app-published-to-Office-...

[v-jiascu-msft]

Hi @Bgladding,

Thank you for sharing. Please mark your answer as solution. This is very very helpful.

Best Regards!

Dale