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.

[D_M]

Hi all,

So I'm just posting this to say PBI directed me here after a file I was working on outright crashed for the second time this week, citing a problem with 'WebView 2', this has been an intermittent problem ever since Microsoft shifted to using WV2 a while back, but seems to have increased in frequency recently.

As it just literally nuked the session, I have no screenshots to share etc., but I'll try to give some context nonetheless:

Session duration: I had PBI desktop open on my PC for roughly 2.5 hours up until this point (latest version at time of writing: 2.121.762.0).

File charateristics: A standard PBIX file currently being accessed/worked on via SharePoint, roughly 33.4MB in physical size.
Data source mode: Standard Import mode (via Snowflake)
Actions being taken at time of crash: Moving a standard (default) slicer 1px vertically

I can see there's an open ticket for this already but just wanted to emphasize this problem has INCREASED in frequency recently, thanks!

[FritzVPL]

Still getting multiple crashes a day with this out of memory error with no external visuals, just navigating between bookmarks.

[IB]

Twice in 2 days with no custom Visuals....
I've got this “Out of memory” crash in Excel before using workbooks with lots of VBA and PowerQuery…

[francoisl]

I got this without any visuals on my pbi file. 

I am currently looking at data in the Power Query Editor but when I close it and apply my query modifications it crashes.  The info is visible in the Power Query Editor. 

The query was made on GA4. 

f

[Rachelleejay]

This has been happening too often for too long and is seriously disrupting the flow of buiness. I DO NOT want to switch to Tableau as that will be a huge migration but this particular error is out of control, but the execs are getting quite upset and have begun talking about it. 

My reports have no external visuals, are less than 30mg., etc. I've been deleting so much I am down to 26mg but this is not a sustainable practice.  I have to save the file every three cliks or so to make sure I keep a change before it crashes and goes away in a poof. If I'm lucky I get this error. 

Commenting to see if anyone has any new ideas. 

Thanks.

[D_M]

Hi all, 

Just to mention this crashed again today and gave me a link back here once again. 'Out of memory' error with no chance of meaningful recovery. Fortunately I've been saving regularly, so only lost a few minutes worth of work, but thought it worthwhile to document it's still happening.

Also just to mention; the recovery option WAS there on restarting PBI, however the recovered file was OLDER than the last saved version, and by some margin. Keep saving regularly everyone!

[bstark1287]

So this is happening to me multiple times daily in a single BI report. I am using Zebra visuals but we use them in all of our reports. I would really like to be able to diagnose what is causing this as it has cost me quite a bit of time to retrace my place each time despite saving pretty regularly. 

[ACheung]

I have this issue in starting from Dec 07, the model is using data on Cloud server, not much visal yet.. but just prompt the issue with no waring............. 

[adamhe]

I experienced this when applying model changes via PowerQuery and was directed here by the error message. My report had no visuals at all as I was still working with the data model and loading data.

[brittija90]

Ever since I updated to the December 2023 update, this has been happening mid-development in PowerBI desktop several times per day. In the same report, this was not happening previous to the latest update. It is a MAJOR inconvenience. Please fix this Microsoft.