Dataflow tables no longer available to workspace viewer

[AMD0791]

I have a Gen2 dataflow that is a single table - a very simple query to a SQL table.  There is no destination configured for the dataflow.  Right now, it's serving as a traditional dataflow for Power BI users.

User has been consuming this dataflow in PowerBI Desktop for weeks with no issue.  User is a member of a group that is a "Viewer" for the workspace that houses the dataflow, and he has a Pro license.  This all worked as expected last week.  Starting Wednesday this week, he cannot refresh the data in PowerBI desktop.  He gets an error "The key didn't match any rows in the table" for that specific table (the only table in the dataflow) during refresh.

I had him try  a new query and he can navigate to the dataflow, but there are no tables listed for the dataflow.  The same behavior has been replicated for another user.  He has no issues connecting to tables in other Gen1 dataflows in the same workspace.

However, I am able to connect to the dataflow and ingest the "missing" table with no issues, so the dataflow table is clearly there and correct and functional.  I am an admin for the workspace and the owner for the dataflow.  

Any ideas on how to troubleshoot?  Adding users as contributors to the workspace isn't a good option -- this workspace is a central data repository managed by IT.

[annelebel]

Can confirm still an issue. Self-service users who want to consume in Excel/PBI desktop and have viewer access on the central IT workspace cannot see Gen2 data, they can/do still consume from Gen1. Must be in Contributor role to use Gen2, which we would never grant to end users. Not sure if this is deliberate, hope not, as Gen1 is still only tool which gives these type of super users ability to use Power Query/Import mode, which is the gold standard if you are building a model/report.

[DickOffenberger]

I am having the same issue.  Have you found a solution for this?

We are using Version: 2.132.1053.0 64-bit (August 2024)

[AMD0791]

I have confirmed that lack of access to these dataflows seems to be related to the Viewer role.  I had a co-worker who was an Admin who *could* get to the dataflow from PBI desktop.  I changed them to a "Viewer", and now they cannot get to the dataflow.  I will have them test if they can create a gen1 dataflow that imports the Gen2 dataflow with the Viewer role, and then I will test what happens with different roles.

[hawkerr1]

It would be great to see a response to this. In my organisation, we have a workspace with one Gen 1 Dataflow and one Gen 2 dataflow. The "viewers" in the workspace can use the Gen 1 dataflow in Power BI Desktop (Get Data/Dataflows), but they cannot use the Gen 2 dataflow. The table to select the checkbox for does not appear when the dataflow name is expanded.

When I moved them to contributor access, this started to work. This is not an acceptable workaround though because we are giving access for this centrally controlled workspace to have its content edited by the people who should only be using it.

Seems like an unforseen product issue to me. It will reduce our ability to move to Gen 2 dataflows (also the fact that they cannot be properly used with Deployment Pipelines is a significant barrier to using them).

[v-nikhilan-msft]

Hi @AMD0791 
Thanks for using Fabric Community.
The error "The key didn't match any rows in the table" during data refresh in Power BI Desktop for your Gen2 dataflow points towards a data access issue for the specific users. Here are similar posts where the issue has been resolved:

https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/t5/Desktop/Expression-Error-The-key-didn-t-match-any-rows-in-...
https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/t5/Desktop/I-have-this-error-The-key-didn-t-match-any-rows-in...

Please refer to these links for more information:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMF3bNXqT2c
https://blog.crossjoin.co.uk/2020/04/06/understanding-the-the-key-didnt-match-any-rows-in-the-table-...

Hope this helps. Please let me know if you have any further questions.

[AMD0791]

Thank you for your reply, but I don't think those solutions will apply to this situation.   I actually found most of those before posting here.

The refresh error about the key not matching any rows is misleading and is just a symptom.  The real problem is that these users can no longer even see the table in the dataflow.  Nothing has changed in the dataflow or in the workspace security for weeks.

The image below shows the dialog box to connect to dataflows from PBI desktop.  When I connect to the dataflow, I'll see something like below and I have no trouble importing the orange highlighted table (Table1 in Dataflow A1).  End users (Workspace Viewers) have also been able to do this for weeks with no issues.

Today, those same end users can see "Dataflow A1(Gen2)" in the list, but the orange highlighted table is just not listed for them.  But they can connect to the tables in "Dataflow A2 (Gen1)" and import the data.

I'm trying to figure out what's changed in the past 7-10 days that interferes with users being able to connect to this dataflow.

Thank you for your assistance!

[v-nikhilan-msft]

Hi @AMD0791 
Are you facing this issue in Power BI desktop or Microsoft Fabric UI?

[AMD0791]

This is in PBI Desktop.  The end users wouldn't be working in online Fabric UI.  They are just trying to consume the dataflow to populate their report.

[v-nikhilan-msft]

Hi @AMD0791 

I would suggest you to post this question in Power BI forum: Desktop - Microsoft Fabric Community. For in-depth discussions and troubleshooting on Power BI, the official Microsoft Power BI forum is a great resource.
Hope this helps.

[AMD0791]

Thank you for the suggestion and I will try that as well.  I posted the question here since it seems to be a very specific issue related to Fabric Dataflow Gen 2, not a general issue in PBI desktop software.

[miguel]

If your users try to create a new Dataflow, are they able to see the table from the other Dataflow within the Dataflow experience? is the issue only happening in Power BI Desktop?

[AMD0791]

These users do not create dataflows - they consume dataflows created by the central IT team.

I did create a Gen1 dataflow in the same workspace that has a linked table referencing the original Gen2 dataflow and the users are able to get the data from the table in the Gen1 dataflow. 

I did have one of the users upgrade their version of PBI Desktop, and that did not resolve the problem.  It's like the users can't get to it now because it's Gen2.

Odd part is that I don't think the tables are actually linked between the two dataflows -- I have to manually refresh the new Gen1 dataflow to get the data from the original Gen2 dataflow.

[miguel]

do try to have them test the creation of a Dataflow but only to see if the tables show up in the Dataflow (Power Query Online) experience. That would help us isolate the issue to see if its specific to Power BI Desktop or if its something different.

[v-nikhilan-msft]

Hi @AMD0791 
We haven’t heard from you on the last response and was just checking back to see if your query got resolved. Otherwise, will respond back with the more details and we will try to help.
Thanks

[AMD0791]

I've done a couple tests.  I think they confirm that the issue is a specific incompatibility between the Gen2 dataflow and the Workspace Viewer role.

* Another user with with Workspace Admin Role could successfully connect to the Gen2 dataflow and import data.

* I changed that user to a Workspace Viewer and they could no longer get data from the Gen2 dataflow from their desktop, but they could still import from a Gen1 dataflow in the same workspace.  The Gen2 dataflow would be listed, but no tables are available.

* Same user (keeping the Viewer role in the relevant workspace) attempted to create a dataflow in a different workspace to import data from the Gen2 dataflow.  They could not get the data and see this error:

We saw the same behavior when testing with a brand new Gen2 dataflow created this week explicitly to test this problem. This reinforces my thoughts that its something about Gen2 dataflows in general, and not just an issue with a specific dataflow.

Thank you for any assistance.

[AMD0791]

I am planning some additional testing with the user to determine if they can create a gen 1 dataflow pointing to the gen2 dataflow table.

I created a completely new gen2 dataflow in the same workspace and the results are the same -- user can see the dataflow but they can't see the underlying tables.