Forum Discussion
Opening Report in Desktop
Correct. Without Edit (or Admin) permission, you can only view in Power BI Service.
This doesn't answer the question in my opinion - how do we open a published report in Power BI desktop (yes, we have edit and admin access) without having to download the file? We can connect to the dataset, why can't we connect to the report instead of downloading it? Is there no concept of connecting to a published report?
It's not possible to open and edit a published report in Power BI Desktop...you have to download the PBIX, edit, and re-publish.
Exporting the PBIX isn't always an option, so I think it's better not to make Power BI Service the repository for your reports.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/create-reports/service-export-to-pbix#limitations
This does run the risk of overwriting hot-edits people make to published reports.