Help getting external user permissions to export from table visual to spreadsheet format

[thejohnqcitizen]

Hello! I've been stumbling my way through BI and administering it over the past couple of years, but I have a new one that I can't seem to find a way around. I have a report that is solely a simple table with a few thousand rows. I need to make this report available to a user that does not exist in our tenant in a way that they can export as a spreadsheet. I've made multiple efforts to get this to work but still seem to be missing something and I'm hoping someone can help. Here is what I've tried so far:

I've added the user as a Guest in our O365 tenant.

Published the report to a Premium Capacity as a PPU-licensed user and gave the user a basic license. From everything I've read, this should've been enough, but it never worked. I also tried giving the user a full Premium license with the same results.

When the above didn't work, I created an app in the workspace and added the report. Consequently, I've invited the user in Entra to view Apps in our tenant as I saw that additional suggestion.

The user continually receives the error: "AADSTS50020: User Account 'user@email' from identity provider 'xxx' does not exist in tenant 'our tenant' and cannot access the application 'xxx'(Microsoft Power BI) in that tenant. The account needs to be added as an external user in the tenant first. Sign out and sign in again with a different Azure Active Directory user account."

I know the user has been added, so maybe the error is a red herring? In any case, I'm hoping someone else may have experienced this and can share some insight. Thanks in advance!

[v-yilong-msft · Accepted solution]

Hi @thejohnqcitizen ,

I think you first need to make sure that you have the correct permissions assigned to the guest user in Azure Active Directory (AAD). If they need to invite other external users, they should have the Guest Inviter role.

Secondly, you need to make sure that Power BI Pro or Premium Per User (PPU) licenses have been assigned to the external users. Even if the report is in Premium capacity, external users need to have the appropriate license to view and interact with the report.

In the Power BI Management Portal, ensure that the settings allow content to be shared with external users, and that external guest users can edit and manage the content as necessary.

Assign external users workspace roles that allow them to export data. These roles can range from Viewer to Administrator, depending on the level of access they require.

If you are not already using Microsoft Entra Business-to-Business (B2B) for sharing content with external users. This method centralizes governance and sharing with external users.

You can refer to the following documentation for more information: Share Power BI reports and dashboards with coworkers and others - Power BI | Microsoft Learn

Best Regards

Yilong Zhou

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