Office 365 groups creating Classing Workspaces (Groups) in Power BI Service

[DebbieE]

Ive gone into Power BI admin and to workspaces

We have 66 Old Classic Workspaces (Groups) cluttering Power BI that really need removing. They are needed as an Office 365 Group but they arent needed as a Power BI Workspace

Im only in 16 of these Groups and of these Im admin in none of them

Ive been upgrading the Classic Workspace to New in Power BI Service on Groups where Im an admin and then deleting them. Annoying but doable

The question is, what is the process that I can follow to remove every single one of these Groups as App workspaces so people using Power BI dont have to wade through lots of unneccessary Workspaces?

[v-yiruan-msft]

Hi @DebbieE ,

Whether your problem has been resolved? If yes, could you please mark the helpful post as Answered? It will help anyone in the community find the solution easily if they face the similar problem with you. Thank you.

Best Regards

Rena

[v-yiruan-msft]

Hi @DebbieE ,

Firstly, you need to be the admin of the related workspace if delete some one workspace. Then complete the following steps:

1. Confirm with the related users whether the contents(dashboards,reports or content packs) in these classic workspaces which will be deleted can be deleted. If some contents need to be keep, the related users can store them in another place before delete.

2. After confirmed, delete the published or installed content packs which created from these workspaces first

3. Upgrade these classic workspaces to new workspace

4. Delete the related workspaces

https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/announcing-upgrade-your-classic-workspaces-to-the-new-works...

https://community.powerbi.com/t5/Report-Server/Deleting-a-Power-BI-Workspace-but-keeping-the-Office-...

It seems you already done the above steps, so I'm not sure whether I understand your requirement correctly, if no, please correct me and provide more details. Thank you.

Best Regards

Rena

[DebbieE]

I was hoping there would be an easier option. Its going to be very difficult asking to become admin of all those groups when alot of the people who use them dont use Power BI and wont understand what im talking about

This is I thinka really problematic area if power BI. People are getting overwhelmed with the amount of un useful App Workspaces

[v-yiruan-msft]

Hi @DebbieE ,

Yes, it might be. But only the admin of workspaces can delete them, and you can only delete them one by one in Power BI Service since you still want to keep these Office 365 groups.

Best Regards

Rena

[DebbieE]

This means I have to go round to every owner to see if its possible to add me as admin to to this. They arent going to really understand why as many of them dont use Power BI. surely there should be a fix for this?

[v-yiruan-msft]

Hi @DebbieE ,

You can contact the global admin of Office 365 and request him to add you as Owner of these groups which need to be deleted in the future in Microsoft 365 admin center. Please refer this documentation about how to find the global amdin of Office 365.

Then you can execute the same operations as before: upgrade these classic workspace to New experience workspace and delete them.

Best Regards

Rena

[DebbieE]

that will be slightly easier but Office 365 groups are created all the time. Its going to need to be cleaned up as an ongoing project.  I dont understand the decision to let every Office 365 group become an App workspace ? 

[v-yiruan-msft]

Hi @DebbieE ,

Because you still want to keep these Office 365 groups, then we can't directly delete the classic workspace in Power BI Service or delete Office 365 group in Office admin center. These 2 methods will delete both of the classic workspace and Office 365 group. However, after upgraded, the new workspace isn’t tied to the Office 365 Group anymore. That means that if you delete the Office 365 Group, the workspace won’t be deleted. Also, if you delete the workspace, the Office 365 Group won’t be deleted.

Best Regards

Rena

[DebbieE]

But why create the classic workspace in the first place within power BI?  People are creating these Office 365 groups for reasons unrelated to Power BI? Also they are classic Workspaces. In order to work with them you need to upgrade them anyway. Im genuinely confuised as to why you think Creating classic App Workspaces for every single Office 365 group is a good thing?

[v-yiruan-msft]

Hi @DebbieE ,

When you create Office 365 group in Office 365, a classic workspace will be created automatically. Similarly, it will also automatically create a associated Office 365 group in Office 365 when you create a classic workspace in Power BI Service. And when you delete the classic workspace (as an Admin) in Power BI Service, the associated 0365 group also be deleted. Vice versa(delete 0365 group will also delete the related classic workspace).This is the current situation. . . Therefore, the official recommendation is to use the new experience workspace which will not automatically create a 0365 group. But it allows you to link OneDrive folders to the workspace, you just have to do it explicitly.

There is one topic about preventing teams from autocreating App Workspace shared on Power BI Ideas, you can vote it up and add your comments there to improve Power BI on this feature .

In addition, when create new group in Office 365, please try the method in this link and check whether it can prevent to create classic workspace in Power BI Service.

Best Regards

Rena

[DebbieE]

these seem to all be in regards to ensuring an Office 365 group isnt created when you create a Classic Workspace.

We are fine with this because we only ever create New Workspaces.

My issue is still in regards to not wanting a classic workspace created everytime someone creates an Office 365 group

[v-yiruan-msft · Accepted solution]

Hi @DebbieE ,

Yes. Actually there already be one topic about preventing create classic workspace automatically when create Office 365 group as mentioned in my previous post. If the number of votes reaches a certain number, the relevant team will develop this feature so that this feature may be implemented in the near future. You can vote here and add comments to speed up the process. Thank you.

Best Regards

Rena