Forum Discussion
Power BI Report Server: Custom visuals from AppSource appear blank for some users but work for other
Hi Community,
I am facing an issue with custom visuals in Power BI Report Server and would appreciate your guidance.
Environment:
- Power BI Report Server (on-prem)
- Reports created in Power BI Desktop (for Report Server)
- Authentication: Windows / Active Directory
- Users have full access on the report server
Custom visuals used (from AppSource / Get more visuals):
1. Bar and Line Chart with Table
Publisher: Kishore Kadhirvelu
2. Advanced Linear Gauge
Publisher: MAQ Software
Issue description:
After publishing the report to Power BI Report Server, these two custom visuals appear BLANK for some users, while the same visuals render correctly for other users.
Important observations:
- Built-in Power BI visuals work fine for all users
- These Visual are free Visual
- Only these two AppSource visuals show the issue
- Users affected have full access to the report and folder
- One user has two laptops:
- On Laptop A: visuals display correctly
- On Laptop B: the same visuals appear blank
- No error message is shown; visuals are simply not rendered
This indicates the issue might be client-machine or browser-related rather than report permissions.
What I want to understand:
1. Is this a known limitation or compatibility issue with AppSource visuals in Power BI Report Server?
2. Are there any browser, security, or local machine settings that can cause custom visuals to not render?
3. Does PBIRS require additional configuration to support third-party visuals consistently?
4. Should this be handled by Power BI Report Server configuration, Desktop version alignment, or IT/security teams?
Any guidance on root cause analysis or best practices for resolving this would be very helpful.
Thanks in advance,
Shubh
Hi shubhsahu6118 , Thank you for reaching out to the Microsoft Community Forum.
While PBIRS supports custom visuals, Microsoft does not guarantee that all AppSource visuals will work reliably or consistently. PBIRS is more restricted than the Power BI Service and many things that work in the cloud are limited or blocked on-prem. Custom visuals run entirely in the user’s browser. The server only delivers the visual code, the browser and local security controls decide whether it can execute. This means differences in browser version, corporate security policies, endpoint protection or extensions can cause a visual to fail silently and appear blank. That is why the same report can work on one machine and not on another.
Microsoft’s documentation confirms that PBIRS is not feature equivalent to the Power BI Service and that custom visuals depend on PBIRS version and browser capabilities. They also state that organizational visuals are not supported at all and even AppSource visuals are only supported within on-prem security constraints. There is no guarantee of consistent behaviour for third-party visuals. Security updates make this more obvious. Both PBIRS and modern Chrome/Edge increasingly block inline scripts, mixed content, cross-origin images and deprecated JavaScript. When a visual depends on any of these, it simply stops rendering with no error.
There is no real server-side fix. PBIRS cannot override browser security or force third-party code to run. If reliability matters, the only safe options in PBIRS are built-in visuals, Deneb/Vega or paginated reports. Third-party visuals in PBIRS are inherently best-effort, not guaranteed.
Compare Power BI Report Server and the Power BI Service - Power BI | Microsoft Learn
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3 Replies
Hi shubhsahu6118 , Thank you for reaching out to the Microsoft Community Forum.
While PBIRS supports custom visuals, Microsoft does not guarantee that all AppSource visuals will work reliably or consistently. PBIRS is more restricted than the Power BI Service and many things that work in the cloud are limited or blocked on-prem. Custom visuals run entirely in the user’s browser. The server only delivers the visual code, the browser and local security controls decide whether it can execute. This means differences in browser version, corporate security policies, endpoint protection or extensions can cause a visual to fail silently and appear blank. That is why the same report can work on one machine and not on another.
Microsoft’s documentation confirms that PBIRS is not feature equivalent to the Power BI Service and that custom visuals depend on PBIRS version and browser capabilities. They also state that organizational visuals are not supported at all and even AppSource visuals are only supported within on-prem security constraints. There is no guarantee of consistent behaviour for third-party visuals. Security updates make this more obvious. Both PBIRS and modern Chrome/Edge increasingly block inline scripts, mixed content, cross-origin images and deprecated JavaScript. When a visual depends on any of these, it simply stops rendering with no error.
There is no real server-side fix. PBIRS cannot override browser security or force third-party code to run. If reliability matters, the only safe options in PBIRS are built-in visuals, Deneb/Vega or paginated reports. Third-party visuals in PBIRS are inherently best-effort, not guaranteed.
Compare Power BI Report Server and the Power BI Service - Power BI | Microsoft Learn
Organization visuals in Power BI - Power BI | Microsoft Learn
Get your Power BI visuals certified - Power BI | Microsoft Learn
Hi shubhsahu6118 , hope you are doing great. May we know if your issue is solved or if you are still experiencing difficulties. Please share the details as it will help the community, especially others with similar issues.
Hi shubhsahu6118 , Hope you're doing okay! May we know if it worked for you, or are you still experiencing difficulties? Let us know — your feedback can really help others in the same situation.