Forum Discussion
Helper IICustom Visuals disappear Intermittently in the desktop version only
Greetings,
I have been using Power BI in our company for over a year, including various custom visuals, which have been working without any issues until recently.
The problem we are facing is that all custom visuals are intermittently disappearing in Power BI Desktop. Sometimes, they appear in the page, and other times, they not. This behavior is inconsistent — at times they work in the morning and disappear later in the day, or they work on one machine but not on another. Interestingly, the custom visuals continue to work properly when accessing reports via the Power BI service (server).
To troubleshoot this issue, I have worked closely with our IT and security teams. They have reviewed the system logs and confirmed that there are no blocks or restrictions impacting the custom visuals. We also considered whitelisting, but the analysis indicated that nothing is being blocked from the security side.
Below show that Custom Visual disappear in the Desktop version.
Disappear of Custom visual in Desktop Version
Below show that Custom Visual appears in the service version.
Appear in Server Version
Hi Maha1
Thanks for the update. Since the issue affects all custom visuals in Power BI Desktop but not in the Service, it’s likely related to the Desktop environment rather than the visuals themselves.
Please try the following steps:
-
Make sure Power BI Desktop is updated to the latest version.
-
Clear the cache at %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Power BI Desktop\AnalysisServicesWorkspaces.
-
Turn off all preview features (File → Options → Preview features).
-
Disable hardware acceleration (File → Options → Global → Display).
-
Reinstall Power BI Desktop — if you're using the EXE version, try the Microsoft Store version, or vice versa.
Also, ensure Power BI Desktop has consistent internet access, as custom visuals rely on it. If the issue persists, let me know your Desktop and Windows version, and whether it happens with all reports or just specific ones — I can help from there.
If this solution helps, please consider giving us Kudos and accepting it as the solution so that it may assist other members in the community
Thank you.-
6 Replies
- Ritaf1983
Super User
Hi Maha1
This is actually a known issue when using custom visuals that are not part of Microsoft’s native visual library. Microsoft does not take responsibility for the stability of third-party visuals, so any intermittent issues like this should ideally be reported directly to the custom visual’s developer or publisher.
That said, there’s a workaround that has helped many users (including in a local Power BI user group I manage): after downloading the visual from the marketplace, pin it to the visualizations pane – this can improve its stability within the Desktop environment. You can do this by right-clicking the visual and selecting “Pin to visualizations pane,” as shown in the screenshot.
If this post helps, then please consider Accepting it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly
Hi Maha1
Thank you for reaching out microsoft fabric community forum.
May I ask if you have resolved this issue? If so, please mark the helpful reply and accept it as the solution. This will be helpful for other community members who have similar problems to solve it faster.
Thank you.
Hi Maha1
I wanted to check if you had the opportunity to review the information provided by Ritaf1983 . Please feel free to contact us if you have any further questions. If her response has addressed your query, please accept it as a solution and give a 'Kudos' so other members can easily find it.
Thank you.
Maha1Hello,
Unfortunately it didn't get resolved. The issue is with ALL custom visuals either they appear or disappear at the same time. Pinnning the visual did not help, as I can see it with the rest of the visuals but the visuals in the report become transperent and cannot add or remove fields.
Hi Maha1
Thanks for the update. Since the issue affects all custom visuals in Power BI Desktop but not in the Service, it’s likely related to the Desktop environment rather than the visuals themselves.
Please try the following steps:
-
Make sure Power BI Desktop is updated to the latest version.
-
Clear the cache at %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Power BI Desktop\AnalysisServicesWorkspaces.
-
Turn off all preview features (File → Options → Preview features).
-
Disable hardware acceleration (File → Options → Global → Display).
-
Reinstall Power BI Desktop — if you're using the EXE version, try the Microsoft Store version, or vice versa.
Also, ensure Power BI Desktop has consistent internet access, as custom visuals rely on it. If the issue persists, let me know your Desktop and Windows version, and whether it happens with all reports or just specific ones — I can help from there.
If this solution helps, please consider giving us Kudos and accepting it as the solution so that it may assist other members in the community
Thank you.-
Hi Maha1
I hope this information is helpful. Please let me know if you have any further questions or if you'd like to discuss this further. If this answers your question, please Accept it as a solution and give it a 'Kudos' so others can find it easily.
Thank you.
