Customised colors change when report is published and again when shared

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I have build a report in Power BI Desktop. I have imported a customised color theme for the report, but to make sure that categories are the same across all pages and visualisations, I have also manually set the colors for each visualisations through Power BI Desktop. However, when we publish the report to Power BI Service the colors change and the colors change again, when I share the report. So we actually have three different color schemes for the same report depending on how we access the report - through my Power BI Desktop installation, through my online workspace or through the shared link.

[v-qiuyu-msft]

Hi @Anonymous, 

Which custom them do you apply to the report? Please share .pbix file with us if possible. 

I tested on my side with waveform.json , when we view the report in Power BI service, or share the report and let users access this report, each visual displays with the same color as defined in Power BI desktop. You can test with our sample report to see if the same issue occurs. 

Best Regards,
Qiuyun Yu 

[Anonymous]

Hi @v-qiuyu-msft 

I have uploaded my own color theme to the report looking like this:

{
    "name": "My own theme",
    "dataColors": ["#78b1b0", "#e7ee7b", "#7aaB6d", "#e6b10e", "#6bac92", "#be8b60", "#4492c6", "#eae2cb"],
    "background": "#FFFFFF",
    "foreground": "#000000",
    "tableAccent": "#dbd5cd"
}

My challenge is that I have more categories in some of the visualisations than colors in the theme, so I have manyally set the colors using the feature below in Power BI Desktop:

In the picture below you see the report in Power BI Desktop:

In the picture below you see the report after it has been published to the online workspace. You can see that the colors in the bar chart change, but the rest stays the same:

In the picture below the report has been shared with a user (sorry for the poor image quality - it is a screenshort from the users computer). However, it is possible to see that the colors of the bar chart stay the same, but the bars are rearranged, and the colors of the circle diagram change.

Is i

Is this sufficient or do you need any further information?

I look very much forward to hearing from you!

Best regards,

Lise

[v-qiuyu-msft]

Hi @Anonymous, 

Regarding the color changes issue after publishing the report to service, I have reported it internally: CRI 148429848. 

Regarding the bars are rearrange in column charts, please check if the end user change sort settings for the chart. 

Best Regards,
Qiuyun Yu

[v-qiuyu-msft]

Hi @Anonymous, 

I got information below from PG team: 

"For the sorting issue, the user likely changed the sort to be by Legend instead of by value.

For the colors issue - colors are assigned from the palette on a first-come, first-served basis. When the report was first being created, each column got a color from the color palette and this is memorized by data point identity so that they match across the visuals that have the same datapoints. Then some colors were manually set via the property pane. After publishing, the color application process will be slightly different, due to the timing of how datapoints are colored. When authoring the report, all columns (let's say 5 columns) are given default colors. If you then manually set column #4, and publish, the logic will be applied differently. Upon first load, shared colors are given to the first three columns, then column 4 has a user-defined color override, then color palette color #4 is given to column #5 because it hasn't been used yet.

Colors should match everywhere in most cases if you close and reopen the report.

In rare cases, some visuals load faster than others at different times, and as colors are first-come first-serve, they may change slightly if a random visual gets assigned colors first."

Best Regards,
Qiuyun Yu

[vsmurli]

Hello,

I have been stymied by the same issue.  Anyone on this thread figure out how to make the Power BI Report robust to prevent this behavior?

If I manually/explicitly set colors like this:

Bananas=Yellow

Oranges=Orange

Strawberries=Red

It is annoying indeed to come in the next morning and see

Bananas=Red

Oranges=Yellow

Strawberries=Blue

I read the thread and it seems that in this scenario, Oranges is rendering first and therefore being assigned "the first" color (Yellow).  That is poor design.

That's just crazy.  Is there a workflow to get the original colors to "stick" and not change?  I'm on the hunt for a solution!

[Anonymous]

Hello,

I have a similar problem.

I've created two visuals where Active should be light blue and Incomplete dark blue:

This works perfectly when I create the report and when I publish it to the workspace and use the filters:

The problem occurs when I look at the embedded report. The report uses RLS so the end user can only see their own specific data. Now when I look at the embedded report, the colors have changed:

Here both graphs have changed but for some users only one of the graphs has changed colors and then it becomes very confusing:

Is there some work around or solution to make sure the colors are correct?