Enterprise Power BI Gateway greyed out for user

[JohnKNis]

I have a user who has created a report in Power BI desktop and published it to the Power BI service, when they go to schedule a refresh the option Use an On-premises or VNet data gateway is off and greyed out. An enterprise gateway is installed, the data sources used in the report exist on the gateway, and they have access to them. The data sources are an existing Power BI semantic model and a folder connection

As a Power BI administrator if I publish the same .pbix file On-premises or VNet data gateway is on and I can connect to the data sources, or if I take over the published report the On-premises or VNet data gateway is on, and I can connect to the data sources. This makes me think it’s a permissions issue, but if their colleague published the .pbix file or takes over the published report the On-premises or VNet data gateway is on even though they do not have permission to use the folder connection.

Why is On-premises or VNet data gateway off and greyed out for the user when it is enabled and on for everyone else?

[v-menakakota]

Hi @JohnKNis ,

May I ask if you have resolved this issue? If so, please mark the helpful reply and accept it as the solution. This will be helpful for other community members who have similar problems to solve it faster.

Thank you.

[vinny1986]

You need to go to this menu (settings) in power bi service ( app.powerbi.com ) :

Select manage connections and gateway in the menu:

and give them access to the connection the report source is using in the list, you must use the little three dots menu in order to do that.

[JohnKNis]

The user already has access to all the connections on the gateway

[v-menakakota · Accepted solution]

Hi @JohnKNis ,

Please go with support ticket

To raise a support ticket for Fabric and Power BI, kindly follow the steps outlined in the following guide:

How to create a Fabric and Power BI Support ticket - Power BI | Microsoft Learn

If this post helps, please give us Kudos and consider marking it Accept as solution to assist other members in finding it more easily.
Thank you for being a part of Microsoft Fabric Community Forum!

Regards,
Menaka.

[v-menakakota]

Hi @JohnKNis ,

We are following up once again regarding your query. Could you please confirm if the issue has been resolved through the support ticket with Microsoft?

If the issue has been resolved, we kindly request you to share the resolution or key insights here to help others in the community. If we don’t hear back, we’ll go ahead and close this thread.

Should you need further assistance in the future, we encourage you to reach out via the Microsoft Fabric Community Forum and create a new thread. We’ll be happy to help.

Thank you for your understanding and participation.

[rohit1991]

Hi @JohnKNis ,

The "On-premises or VNet data gateway" option is greyed out for the user due to one of these reasons:

1. Lack of Gateway Permissions – The user may not be assigned access to the Enterprise Gateway.
2. Dataset Ownership Issue – The dataset may be owned by another user, restricting access.
3. Mixed Data Sources – The report uses Power BI semantic models + Folder data, which may not be fully supported for scheduled refresh via gateway.
4. Power BI Service Bug or Sync Issue – Sometimes, permissions do not sync immediately after changes.

Try These Steps to Fix It:

Step 1: Check Gateway Permissions

• Power BI Admin Portal > Manage Gateways
• Select the Gateway → Check if the user is listed under "Users"
• If not, add them manually and try again.

Step 2: Verify Dataset Ownership

• If another user published the dataset, have them transfer ownership to the affected user.
• Test by having the user "Take Over" the dataset in Dataset Settings.

Step 3: Ensure the Data Source is Configured for Gateway

• Go to Power BI Service > Gateway Connection
• Check if all data sources (Semantic Model + Folder) are correctly mapped under the gateway.

Step 4: Refresh and Republish the Report

• If the issue persists, have the user save and republish the .pbix file under a different workspace.
• Ensure they are using the latest Power BI Desktop version.

[JohnKNis]

We don’t want to give users access to the gateway as they would allow them to create their own data connections which would lead to everyone having different connections connecting to the same data source. The connections already exist, and the users has access to them currently as Owner. Normally they would not be the Owner of a connection just a user but they have been promoted to Owner to try and make it work

If the affected user publishes a dataset On-premises or VNet data gateway is greyed out, but If I take it over it becomes available to me and I can connect to the data sources and refresh from the Power BI service so the connections exist and are mapped correctly as they work. If another, non Power BI admin, user take over the data set On-premises or VNet data gateway is available and refresh works. The same is true if the user publishes other datasets to other workspaces so its not the data set or the workspace it must be something to do with the user.

I haven’t tried getting the user to take a dataset back over but I will try it and report back

[Wikkleyn_81]

Hi @JohnKNis When the Admin connects and the Semantic Model is mapped succefully, there is a Cloud connection created as well. You can share that Cloud Connection with the user as well.

If you go to the Gateways and Connections portal, search for that connection and ensure the user has access to it.

Then ask the user to refresh their browser and try to map it again.

[v-menakakota]

Hi @JohnKNis ,

I wanted to check if you had the opportunity to review the information provided by @vinny1986  and @rohit1991 . Please feel free to contact us if you have any further questions. If this answers your question, please Accept it as a solution and give it a 'Kudos' so others can find it easily.

Thank you.