Inconsistent cross-highlighting behaviour.

[BOakham]

I have two visuals: a pi chart and a stacked column, which I would like to cross-highlight. The legend fields for both visuals come from the same table, so there's no issue with items in one not existing in the other. But weirdly, when I click some items, the other visual cross-highlights correctly, but on others instead of highlighting, it filters.

Here are the two charts with nothing selected:

Nothing selected

Now if I select the Oct 2025 Group 5 bar segment, or Fee Earner 67 on the pi chart, cross highlighting works fine:

Oct-2025 Group 5 selected - cross highlight works

Fee Earner 67 selected - cross highlight works

But if I select Nov-2025 Group 5 on the bar chart, or Fee Earner 13 on the pi chart, the cross highlighting does not work, and the other visual instead gets filtered.

Nov-2025 Group 5 selected - cross highlight not working, pi chart filtered insteadFee Earner 13 selected - cross highlighting not working, bar chart filtered instead

Does anybody know why it behaves this way, if how can I make it so that the cross-highlighting functionality is consistent for all selections?

Thank you!

Here's an example file with the problem:

Cross Highlighting.pbix 

[Anand24 · Accepted solution]

Hi @BOakham,
This indeed is inconsistent bevahiour. Yes, you can switch to cross-filtering but here's an observation in case that can be taken care off - Whenever there is a blank or negative bar between first and last month with non-blank values when a selection is made on the pie, it is auto-filtering. Otherwise it is highlighting.

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[MasonMA]

Hi

It looks like a visual bug to me even for Fee Earners with similar patterns on transaction data. I'd suggest switching to 'Cross Filtering' instead to keep the consistency. 

[BOakham]

Thank you! I prefer the highlighting, but I agree consistency is better, so I'll go with filtering!

[V-yubandi-msft]

Hi @BOakham ,
Could you please let us know if your issue is resolved. If you need any additional help, we’re happy to assist.

Thank you.

[amitchandak]

@BOakham , we can use edit interactions, and change behavior between any two visuals 

Format -> edit Interactions 

How Interactions Work- Split Page using interactions to compare - https://youtu.be/GIfRKzhMaR4