Individual authorization for refreshing a report

[Do57792]

Hello Experts!

I would like to garantee a collegue the access to see/refresh only his related published reports at a workspace .  At the workspace itself are a lot more reports, where I would not like to show him these / give him access right now and also in future, so to add him as member at the whole workspace do not make sense.
Is there another possibility, or maybe add only members for a folderstructure?

Many thanks in advance.

[Anonymous]

Hi @Do57792 ,
Following up to check whether you got a chance to review the suggestion given.If still facing any issue,feel free to reach out!
Thank you.

[Anonymous]

Hi @Do57792 ,
Has the issue been resolved on your end? If you still face any issues, feel free to reachout!
If you found any workaround, please share it and accept the same as solution.
Thank you.

[rohit1991 · Accepted solution]

Hi @Do57792 

To allow your colleague to view and refresh only specific reports without giving access to the entire workspace, you have a couple of practical options. Power BI does not currently support folder-level permissions or fine-grained access within a single workspace. Instead, you can publish the required report to a separate workspace where your colleague is granted access (Viewer for view-only or Contributor for refresh capability). Alternatively, you can share the report directly from the Power BI Service using the "Share" feature this gives them access only to that report, not the full workspace.

However, for dataset refresh, they will need Build permission on the dataset and appropriate access to the underlying data source. A third option is to use a Power BI App, which allows you to bundle specific reports and securely share them with individual users, providing a curated experience without exposing other workspace content.

[Anonymous]

Hi @Do57792 ,
Thank you @Poojara_D12 and @Ilgar_Zarbali  for the helpful responses!

We  are following up on the previous suggestions provided by @Poojara_D12  and @Ilgar_Zarbali . We would appreciate your feedback to ensure we can assist you further.

If their responses  has addressed your query, please accept the solution that helped you as acepted solution so other members can easily find it. Please let us know if there’s anything else we can do to help.
Thank you.

Regards,
Pallavi.

[Poojara_D12]

Hi @Do57792 

In Microsoft Fabric (and Power BI), workspace-level access is the primary model for managing permissions, which unfortunately means there is no native folder-level access control or the ability to assign permissions to individual reports within a workspace. If you want to allow a colleague to view or refresh only specific reports, without granting them access to the rest of the workspace content, you have two main alternatives:

1. Use a Separate Workspace: The most straightforward and secure approach is to publish the reports intended for that colleague into a separate workspace, where they can be granted Viewer or Contributor access. This keeps their access limited to only those reports, without exposing other content.

2. Use Power BI Apps for Controlled Sharing: You can publish selected reports or dashboards as a Power BI app from the main workspace. Then, assign access to that app only to the intended user. Apps allow you to bundle specific reports and control who can see them, without giving access to the full workspace. Note that users with access to the app cannot edit the reports, but they can view and refresh the data (if dataset permissions and underlying data sources allow it).

Currently, Power BI and Fabric do not support folder structures within workspaces or fine-grained report-level permissions inside a single workspace. So, the best practices are either segregating content via separate workspaces or using apps for curated sharing experiences.

[Ilgar_Zarbali]

You're absolutely right — adding someone as a member to the entire workspace would give them access to all reports, which isn't suitable in your case. Fortunately, there are ways to grant access only to specific reports without giving access to the entire workspace.

I recommend:
Use the Share feature at the report level, without assigning workspace roles:

1. Publish the report to a workspace (you as the owner).
2. Go to the Power BI Service, open the report.
3. Click on "Share" (top right).
4. Enter your colleague’s email address and grant Read access only.
   * You can choose whether they can reshare or build content on top.
5. This way, they can access only that specific report — not the full workspace.

For them to refresh the report manually, they must have build permissions and the dataset must be in the same workspace (or shared properly).