Cannot open pbip file from Power BI desktop

Hi Dragut ,

What's happening on your machine is,

When you installed Power BI Desktop, it came with its own copy of a library called Newtonsoft.Json version 13.0.2 or higher. But somewhere on your PC — likely from Dell software (Dell Command Monitor/Update/SupportAssist) or tools like Tabular Editor, Redgate, or Intune — an older copy of the same library (version 13.0.1) got placed in a special Windows location called the GAC (Global Assembly Cache).

Now here's the cruel part: Windows always trusts the GAC copy over any app's own bundled copy. So when Power BI tries to open your .pbip file, Windows hands it the old 13.0.1 library instead of the newer one Power BI needs. Power BI then calls a method that simply doesn't exist in 13.0.1 — and crashes with "Method not found." Reinstalling Power BI doesn't help because the problem isn't Power BI — it's that old DLL sitting in the GAC.

Try the below (No Admin Rights Needed)

Since you can't delete or replace that GAC file yourself, here's what you do:

Step 1 — Find out what put it there

Go to Control Panel → Programs → Uninstall a program and look for any of these:

• Dell Command Monitor
• Dell Command Update
• Dell SupportAssist
• Tabular Editor
• Redgate software

If you find Dell software — uninstall it. That alone removes the bad DLL from the GAC and fixes the problem immediately. No admin rights needed to uninstall regular programs.

Step 2 — If you can't uninstall anything, escalate to IT with this exact message:

"There is an incompatible version of Newtonsoft.Json (13.0.1) installed in the GAC at C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\assembly\GAC_MSIL\Newtonsoft.Json\v4.0_13.0.0.0__30ad4fe6b2a6aeed\. Power BI Desktop April 2026 requires version 13.0.2 or higher. Please either remove this folder or replace the DLL with Newtonsoft.Json 13.0.3 from NuGet. This is a confirmed Microsoft regression."

Give IT this one-line PowerShell fix they can run as admin in 30 seconds:

powershell

$url = "https://www.nuget.org/api/v2/package/Newtonsoft.Json/13.0.3"

$zip = "$env:TEMP\newtonsoft.zip"

Invoke-WebRequest -Uri $url -OutFile $zip

Expand-Archive -Path $zip -DestinationPath "$env:TEMP\newtonsoft" -Force

$gac = "C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\assembly\GAC_MSIL\Newtonsoft.Json\v4.0_13.0.0.0__30ad4fe6b2a6aeed"

Remove-Item $gac -Recurse -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

New-Item -ItemType Directory -Path $gac -Force

Copy-Item "$env:TEMP\newtonsoft\lib\net45\Newtonsoft.Json.dll" -Destination $gac -Force

Write-Host "Fixed. Restart Power BI Desktop."

Hope this will resolve your problem.

Thanks and Regards

GainInsights Solutions

Trusted Microsoft Partner - https://gain-insights.com/partnerships/microsoft/

www.gain-insights.com

Hello Dragut ,

This problem is generally about Power BI Desktop version. Can you downgrade your version? You can download January 2026 from here:

https://download.microsoft.com/download/8/8/0/880BCA75-79DD-466A-927D-1ABF1F5454B0/PBIDesktopSetup-2026-01_x64.exe

If this solved your issue, please mark it as the accepted solution.