View shared dashboard in Desktop

[isha88sheth]

I have shared my dashboard with a user in my organization, can that user still view the dashboard through PowerBI Desktop? Is there any possible way for that user to view the dashboard offline i.e. in Desktop version?

[v-qiuyu-msft]

Hi @isha88sheth,

I agree with @Seth_C_Bauer. The end user can only view shared dashboard in Power BI Service instead of desktop currently. The user can only export the data for each viaul used in the dashboard to .CSV.

Best Regards,

Qiuyun Yu

[isha88sheth]

@v-qiuyu-msft How can the user download csv from the Service dashboard?

[v-qiuyu-msft]

Hi @isha88sheth,

You can export data from visuals on dashboards or reports to CSV like below:

Reference:
Export data from Power BI visualizations

Best Regards,
Qiuyun Yu

[Seth_C_Bauer]

@isha88sheth Assuming you mean you shared the dashboard from the Service, there is not a way for the end user to download the PBIX. That feature was announced at the PASS Summit as being very close to completion, but I believe the end user would need to have edit permissions on the report in order to do that. So, if you mean "read only" user - then I believe the answer is "no". If you mean someone in a group who already has access to the report, then the answer is "soon".

If you mean that you sent them a PBIX (Desktop file), then yes they will be able to have the same control as you with every aspect of the file as long as they have access/permissions to the data source.

[isha88sheth]

@Seth_C_Bauer thanks for a detailed clarification.

I understand that if the user has the PBIX, they can run on PowerBI Desktop. But in my case, I have shared the dashboard and report through the online tool (not PBIX) with the user.

This will give them access to the dashboard and report both. 

Expecting the new feature announced at PASS will resolve this issue by either giving them the option to download the pbix.

[Seth_C_Bauer]

@isha88sheth I can only guess here... but my intial assumption would be that an end user that is viewing a report from a shared dashboard will not be able to download the PBIX because they have no permission to edit it. This would be problematic because it gives them a level of access/control that they shouldn't have...