Power BI Desktop WebView2 crash

[Anonymous]

Power BI is experiencing a problem with WebView2. We need your help to understand and fix this issue. If you are willing to help out, please contact us at pbidesktopwebview2issues@service.microsoft.com

[andyclap]

Just a quick progress update - they've escalated, and are waiting for a response:

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I hope this message finds you well. Apologies for the delay, we are trying to reproduce the issue in different versions of WebView2 and our Internal team is actively working on this issue. We will provide you an update as soon as I receive information from our internal team.

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Though I'm not holding my breath. It's yet another bug in the embedded web handling in power bi desktop (electron?), there are lots of them (like rule #1 is don't run stuff in the UI thread, use a worker). May be better to wait for online parity with desktop.

[wmcnair2]

I am now getting this error message frequently with my WIndows Desktop Power BI. Complete crash of Power BI, I loose all work. Does anyone know if this happens when some combination of programs are open? Like Chrome Browser, OneNote, Excel and Power BI?

I am thinking this is an issue with JUNE 2024 Power BI update. Is there anyway to roll back to update just before JUNE?

[lbendlin]

@wmcnair2  which version would you like?

[MT-ST]

One way to replicate the error if If you try to sign out while using Citrix with Power Bi open then this error will happen and you can click close as many times as you want but eventually PowerBi closes.

[andyclap]

Progress update.

After working through the support ticket with Microsoft, they have acknowledged this is a low-level problem with the WebView2 component as used in PowerBI. 

Fundamentally shut-down/sign-out will terminate any processes that do not interrupt shut-down. PowerBI handles the interruption in its application code, however this does not prevent the dependent WebView2 UI being terminated. The WebView2 process is an independent processes and is closed. So when PowerBI comes to confirm shutdown, the WebView2 has disappeared and PowerBI crashes as there is no code to handle this.

So at least they have acknowledged the problem, and have given assurance that this is within their book of work.

Unfortunately there is no public visibility of internal work, even when related to support cases, so the support engineer has pointed me to this github issue which they will update with progress.

https://github.com/MicrosoftEdge/WebView2Feedback/issues/3700

This would help sove the problem systemically in the WebView2, but there doesn't seem to be any appetite from MS for implementing a workaround to prevent crashing in PowerBI.

I'll reach out to see if an admin can remove the "Delivered" flag on this issue, as it's obviously not delivered yet.

Hope someone finds this useful.

[jarguedasa]

[jarguedasa]

[andyclap]

The github issue hasn't been updated for a year.

There is a simple workaround the PowerBI team could implement (set process priority so that PowerBI gets asked whether to interrupt shutdown before the webview); but I cann't imagine the PowerBI Product Owner prioritizing this over yet more useless AI crap that you need to pay through the nose for <snark/>

[mdswisher]

Recommendations?

Thank you @andyclap  for the updates.

[jjcano77]

Hey, I have this problem too.