Forum Discussion
Exporting Images from Power BI in Power Automate getting 'Export_To_File_for_Power_BI_Reports" error
Hey jesualli ,
1. Cloud Flow Is a Must Skipping Desktop Automation
You're absolutely right to eliminate the desktop option since your automation needs to run in the cloud without being tied to your local machine. So, let’s focus entirely on cloud-based methods.
2. Extracting Report Images from Subscription Emails
Since Power BI subscriptions include a snapshot of the report page in the email, you can design a Power Automate cloud flow to capture that image. Here’s a suggested outline:
Approach:
Trigger: Start the flow with “When a new email arrives (V3)” and filter it using keywords like “Power BI” or the report title.
Check Conditions: Confirm that it’s the intended subscription email.
Read Email: Use “Get email (V3)” and set Include Attachments = Yes to fetch embedded images.
Extract Image: If the image is embedded in the email body as a cid: reference, you'll need to parse the HTML content of the email. Power Automate can use expressions or the Graph API to help extract that content cleanly.
Optional Step: Store or forward the extracted image to SharePoint, OneDrive, or another service.
For Detailed Information: Power Automate Forum – Image Extraction from Email
3. Rendering Power BI in a Web App and Capturing It
If you're exploring Power BI Embedded, another method is to display the report in a secure web app and capture it using front-end techniques. You’ll Need:
Power BI JavaScript SDK to embed the report.
A screenshot tool like html2canvas to capture the rendered visuals.
For Detailed Information:
Power BI JavaScript API Overview
html2canvas (Client-side Screenshot)
4. Converting a Regular Report into a Paginated Report
Paginated Reports are ideal if you’re on Power BI Premium or Fabric with Paginated capabilities. Although you can’t directly convert a .pbix file into a paginated report, you can recreate the same visuals using Power BI Report Builder.
Steps:
Open Report Builder.
Connect to your existing Power BI dataset or a SQL source.
Rebuild your layout using precise tables and visuals.
Save it as a .rdl file and publish it to the Power BI Service.
For Detailed Information:
Get Started with Paginated Reports
Creating Paginated Reports from Power BI Datasets
Export Paginated Reports via API
If you found this solution helpful, please consider accepting it and giving it a kudos (Like) it’s greatly appreciated and helps others find the solution more easily.
Best Regards,
Nasif Azam
Hey jesualli ,
1. Cloud Flow Is a Must Skipping Desktop Automation
You're absolutely right to eliminate the desktop option since your automation needs to run in the cloud without being tied to your local machine. So, let’s focus entirely on cloud-based methods.
2. Extracting Report Images from Subscription Emails
Since Power BI subscriptions include a snapshot of the report page in the email, you can design a Power Automate cloud flow to capture that image. Here’s a suggested outline:
Approach:
Trigger: Start the flow with “When a new email arrives (V3)” and filter it using keywords like “Power BI” or the report title.
Check Conditions: Confirm that it’s the intended subscription email.
Read Email: Use “Get email (V3)” and set Include Attachments = Yes to fetch embedded images.
Extract Image: If the image is embedded in the email body as a cid: reference, you'll need to parse the HTML content of the email. Power Automate can use expressions or the Graph API to help extract that content cleanly.
Optional Step: Store or forward the extracted image to SharePoint, OneDrive, or another service.
For Detailed Information: Power Automate Forum – Image Extraction from Email
3. Rendering Power BI in a Web App and Capturing It
If you're exploring Power BI Embedded, another method is to display the report in a secure web app and capture it using front-end techniques. You’ll Need:
Power BI JavaScript SDK to embed the report.
A screenshot tool like html2canvas to capture the rendered visuals.
For Detailed Information:
Power BI JavaScript API Overview
html2canvas (Client-side Screenshot)
4. Converting a Regular Report into a Paginated Report
Paginated Reports are ideal if you’re on Power BI Premium or Fabric with Paginated capabilities. Although you can’t directly convert a .pbix file into a paginated report, you can recreate the same visuals using Power BI Report Builder.
Steps:
Open Report Builder.
Connect to your existing Power BI dataset or a SQL source.
Rebuild your layout using precise tables and visuals.
Save it as a .rdl file and publish it to the Power BI Service.
For Detailed Information:
Get Started with Paginated Reports
Creating Paginated Reports from Power BI Datasets
Export Paginated Reports via API
If you found this solution helpful, please consider accepting it and giving it a kudos (Like) it’s greatly appreciated and helps others find the solution more easily.
Best Regards,
Nasif Azam
Thank you very much Nasif_Azam !
One last question when "Extracting Report Images from Subscription Emails" the whole report is squashed into the same image is there any way to enlarge the image within teh cloud flow?
Hey jesualli ,
You're very welcome! Unfortunately, Power BI subscription emails embed the entire report page as a single static image, often scaled down to fit email clients. You can scale up the image after extraction, but:
Upscaling in Power Automate directly is not supported.
Using an external service like Azure Function, Power Automate Custom Connector, or even AI-powered upscalers (e.g., Azure Computer Vision, or a Python REST API) could help.
Things To Remember:
The subscription image is not controllable in size.
Workarounds like zooming, image resizing, or extracting a higher-res version must happen outside the email flow.
If you found this solution helpful, please consider accepting it and giving it a kudos (Like) it’s greatly appreciated and helps others find the solution more easily.
Best Regards,
Nasif Azamthank u so much!