Error Power BI Service - Need Help Please!

[PedroModa]

I am experiencing an intermittent behavior in the Power BI Service related to Row-Level Security (RLS) and would like to know if anyone else has encountered something similar.

In some Power BI Service visuals, the following error appears:

“The useRelationship() and crossfilter() functions cannot be used when querying because they are restricted by row-level security.”

The critical points are:

• The error does not occur consistently

• It appears randomly across different visuals

• In some cases, the error points to tables that do not have inactive relationships and do not use USERELATIONSHIP or CROSSFILTER (for example, a cost center dimension)

• When clicking “Refresh visuals” in the Service, the error disappears immediately and the data is displayed correctly

• In other situations, the user opens the report and everything works normally, with no error

I also observed that:

• In some cases, when adding a user to an RLS role, the error appears

• After refreshing the visuals, the error disappears

• In subsequent accesses by the same user, the report may open normally without the issue

This behavior started occurring after last weekend, which leads me to suspect a recent update or instability in the Power BI Service.
I would also like to add that after the weekend, this error started occurring and I investigated the model and found that one of the tables was using an inactive relationship and the measures were using USERELATIONSHIP(). I then remodeled this table, removed the inactive relationship, and removed USERELATIONSHIP() from the measures, while keeping the same results. At that point, the issue seemed resolved.

However, the error still persists intermittently, now pointing to random tables that do not have inactive relationships and do not use USERELATIONSHIP() in their measures. I am not sure what is happening, since sometimes the error appears, sometimes it does not—and when it does, refreshing the visuals in the Service makes the error disappear and the user can continue using the report as if nothing had happened.

I am fully aware that this error is expected when using USERELATIONSHIP() or CROSSFILTER() in combination with RLS. However:

• There is no use of these functions in the measures indicated by the error

• The model has not been changed recently

• If this were a structural modeling issue, the error should be consistent, not disappear simply by refreshing visuals

For these reasons, my hypothesis is that there may be some type of:

• Cache inconsistency

• Incorrect RLS re-evaluation

• Bug introduced by a recent Power BI Service update

I would like to know:

• Has anyone experienced this intermittent behavior?

• Is there any known incident or recent change in the Service related to RLS?

• Is there any recommended mitigation beyond republishing the dataset or refreshing visuals?

Any insights or shared experiences would be greatly appreciated.

[PedroModa]

I am experiencing an intermittent behavior in the Power BI Service related to Row-Level Security (RLS) and would like to know if anyone else has encountered something similar.

In some Power BI Service visuals, the following error appears:

“The useRelationship() and crossfilter() functions cannot be used when querying because they are restricted by row-level security.”

The critical points are:

• The error does not occur consistently

• It appears randomly across different visuals

• In some cases, the error points to tables that do not have inactive relationships and do not use USERELATIONSHIP or CROSSFILTER (for example, a cost center dimension)

• When clicking “Refresh visuals” in the Service, the error disappears immediately and the data is displayed correctly

• In other situations, the user opens the report and everything works normally, with no error

I also observed that:

• In some cases, when adding a user to an RLS role, the error appears

• After refreshing the visuals, the error disappears

• In subsequent accesses by the same user, the report may open normally without the issue

This behavior started occurring after last weekend, which leads me to suspect a recent update or instability in the Power BI Service.
I would also like to add that after the weekend, this error started occurring and I investigated the model and found that one of the tables was using an inactive relationship and the measures were using USERELATIONSHIP(). I then remodeled this table, removed the inactive relationship, and removed USERELATIONSHIP() from the measures, while keeping the same results. At that point, the issue seemed resolved.

However, the error still persists intermittently, now pointing to random tables that do not have inactive relationships and do not use USERELATIONSHIP() in their measures. I am not sure what is happening, since sometimes the error appears, sometimes it does not—and when it does, refreshing the visuals in the Service makes the error disappear and the user can continue using the report as if nothing had happened.

I am fully aware that this error is expected when using USERELATIONSHIP() or CROSSFILTER() in combination with RLS. However:

• There is no use of these functions in the measures indicated by the error

• The model has not been changed recently

• If this were a structural modeling issue, the error should be consistent, not disappear simply by refreshing visuals

For these reasons, my hypothesis is that there may be some type of:

• Cache inconsistency

• Incorrect RLS re-evaluation

• Bug introduced by a recent Power BI Service update

I would like to know:

• Has anyone experienced this intermittent behavior?

• Is there any known incident or recent change in the Service related to RLS?

• Is there any recommended mitigation beyond republishing the dataset or refreshing visuals?

Any insights or shared experiences would be greatly appreciated.

[GeraldGEmerick · Accepted solution]

 I found this as a Closed issue on the Microsoft Fabric Known Issues page for Power BI: Microsoft Fabric Known Issues

Description

You can define row-level security (RLS) for a table that contains measures. USERELATIONSHIP() and CROSSFILTER() functions can't be used in the measures. A change was recently made to enforce this requirement.When viewing a report, you see an error message. The error message is similar to: "Error fetching data for this Visual. The UseRelationship() and Crossfilter() functions may not be used when querying <dataset> because it is constrained by row level security" or "The USERELATIONSHIP() and CROSSFILTER() functions may not be used when querying 'T' because it is constrained by row-level security."

Solution/Workaround

The change is to enforce a security requirement. To prevent your reports from failing, you can remove USERELATIONSHIP() and CROSSFILTER() from your measures. Alternatively, you can modify the relationships using recommendations for RLS models. (
https://learn.microsoft.com/power-bi/guidance/relationships-active-inactive)

@PedroModa