Power BI Desktop WebView2 Out Of Memory

[Anonymous]

Power BI is experiencing a problem with WebView2 running Out of memory. We have identified some of the top causes of this and have the details below. If that does not address your Out of memory problem, contact us at  pbidesktopwebview2issues@service.microsoft.com

Out of Memory cause: 

Custom visuals causing memory leak - If you are using any custom visuals and are running into Out of Memory crahses, please try removing the custom visuals to check if it resolves the issue. If it does, please reach out with the visual which was cauing the memory leak so we can address it. 

If you are not using any custom visuals and are still running into this, it could be due to having a lot of report pages and visuals per page. This causes the browser heap memory to exceed the 4GB limit and crash. This is sadly a limitation of chromium. 

Possible workaround 

• Limit the number of visuals in the report. The recommendation is to split the report into smaller reports and using cross-drillthrough - Use cross-report drillthrough in Power BI Desktop - Power BI | Microsoft Docs.The cross-drillthrough feature carries through filters when using cross drill through.

[jight]

Hi, I'm experiencing the same error, and my report has no visual. This PBIX was something I created last year, and everything was working and suddenly I'm getting this error 10 months later. The application closes immediately so I can't edit anything. Anyone got a solution to this yet?

[D_M_2]

Hi @jight,

I assume you've already maxed out your memory settings in PBI desktop etc., but have you tried using/testing the two different types of PBI desktop install (msi/advanced vs. app store version)? Also, PBI service has enhanced editing options now, which still aren't 100% in parity with PBI desktop, but might allow you to edit the file in the meantime?

For memory settings: Options > Global > Data Load

For PBI desktop msi/advanced install: https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/download/details.aspx?id=58494&culture=en-gb&country=gb

For PBI app store install: https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9ntxr16hnw1t?hl=en-US&gl=GB

For editing file in PBI service (assuming you've not tried this yet): My workspace (in PBI service) > Import > Report, Paginated Report or Workbook > Choose location etc.

[keshali2026]

Hi It is showing as " There's a problem with WebView2" some error. how to solve this

[BharathNB]

Hi, why is it causing the issue every time? Unable to open the dashboards kindly help me on this. Because of this I am unable to deliver the report on time, and it got escalated to director level. Kindly look into on this error.

[rubenlc96]

Subject / Comment: WebView2 OOM crash caused complete loss of data model (PBIX opened with zero queries) Hi, I’ve just hit this issue today and I’d like to add some detail on the impact, because in my case the problem went beyond a simple crash. Scenario Power BI Desktop (64‑bit, latest version from Microsoft Store). Report with multiple pages, KPIs, slicers (date slicer using “Before”), complex DAX (ALLSELECTED + KEEPFILTERS), no custom visuals. While interacting with date slicers, Power BI crashed with: “There is a problem with WebView2 – Out of Memory” What happened after the crash Power BI reopened using AutoRecover. The most recent recovered file opened without any data model: Power Query shows 0 queries. Data pane shows “No data loaded”. Report pages and visuals layout are present, but all visuals show “There was a problem with one or more fields”. This PBIX is effectively just a “report shell”: no tables, no measures, no relationships. This seems consistent with WebView2 crashing while the model was not fully serialized, so AutoRecover only saved the layout but not the semantic model. At that point the file is not recoverable. Observations The UI toggle “Power BI Desktop Infrastructure Update” is no longer available in recent versions. The only mitigation that works is setting the environment variable: PBI_enableWebView2Preview=0 to force Power BI Desktop to stop using WebView2. Questions for the product team Is this data‑loss scenario (layout saved, model lost) a known failure mode of WebView2 OOM crashes? Are there plans to improve AutoRecover so the semantic model is atomically saved with the report? Are there official best practices to avoid this (number of visuals per page, slicer types, memory thresholds)? Can Microsoft confirm whether the WebView2 dependency will remain mandatory in Desktop, or if a more stable fallback is planned? This is a serious issue from a development perspective, because it can cause total loss of work even when AutoRecover triggers. Thanks in advance for any guidance.