What do I do with "This report contains a custom visual that needs to be saved"?

[reubwork]

I manage a Power BI tenancy. To review a colleague's work I've downloaded their report. 

Power BI Desktop shows the message; 

"This report contains a custom visual that needs to be saved. Planning to work offline? Save it first, while you're online."

Which visual? What does it mean by "saved"? Am I meant to figure out which custom visual it is, go find it in the marketplace and save it myself? 

[Jeanxyz · Accepted solution]

That means the report developer has imported some visual from the market, sometimes, the imported visual is not used any more in the report. I have seem this kind of message in my own report. I simply ignored it as all my visuals are appearing correctly. 

[BramCRS]

In case you don't think there are any custom visuals in the report and you are using the PBIP format:

I had the same pop-up but I didn't know about any custom visuals being used in the report. To figure out what was going on, I went into the [ReportName].Report/report.json file. There was a "publicCustomVisuals" object in the JSON file containing a list of custom visual names, containing one item. When I searched for this custom visual name in the rest of the JSON document I couldn't find any actual use of this custom visual. I do remember once upon a time testing with this custom visual and apparantly it left some configuration in the report.json. I deleted the publicCustomVisuals object from the JSON document and the pop-up disappeared. 

[magibson]

Are you using the new PBIP project format? I'm running into the same thing and it looks (https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/t5/Service/Power-BI-with-Git-Is-Visual-Studio-code-mandatory/...) as if there may be an issue with the combination of this Preview feature and custom visuals?

[reubwork · Accepted solution]

Ooh. I looks like its this though...

Thanks for the link! 

https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/t5/Service/Power-BI-with-Git-Is-Visual-Studio-code-mandatory/...

[reubwork]

i.e. Something to do with the Power Automate visual that was previously a CustomViz and is now a standard. 

[reubwork]

I have PBIP enabled, but not using it yet. I'm waiting for full TMDL support in Desktop before switching over. 

[reubwork]

Thanks, that makes sense. 

[Jeanxyz · Accepted solution]

That means the report developer has imported some visual from the market, sometimes, the imported visual is not used any more in the report. I have seem this kind of message in my own report. I simply ignored it as all my visuals are appearing correctly. 

[PBIDevFW]

And of course nobody has a solution. A lot of talking with no answers.

[Jeanxyz]

Why so complain? Most of people reply because they are interested in the topic. I have raised over 100 questions in this community, about 90% of them were solved in the end. 

[jjudy]

I have the same issue and no Save prompt. How do I determine which visualization is the one that needs to be saved? This is especially troubling because the report uses only stock visuals and I'm the one who built it so there's no transfer. 

[v-stephen-msft]

Hi @reubwork ,

When you download a colleague’s report in Power BI Desktop, you may encounter a message that says "This report contains a custom visual that needs to be saved. Planning to work offline? Save it first, while you’re online.". This message indicates that the report contains a custom visual that is not available in the default Power BI visuals library.

To resolve this issue, you need to save the custom visual to your local machine. You can do this by clicking on the “Save” button in the message box. Once you have saved the custom visual, it will be available for use in your report even when you are offline.

More details about custom visuals, please refer to

What are custom visuals in Power BI and where can I get them?

Best Regards,

Stephen Tao

If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.           

[PBIDevFW]

Sorry, but really poor explanation. 

[reubwork]

Hi,

I don't know what you mean by "the save button in the message box". I showed a screenshot above... there isn't a Save button. 

?

[foodd]

What is your question? What have you tried and where are you stuck?

[PBIDevFW]

His questions were clear. What do you mean what is your question? Did you read the post? Couldn't be clearer.

[reubwork]

My question is - what am I supposed to do to resolve the alert message? 

I have no idea what to try because I don't know what it means.