Issue with "Embed live data in PowerPoint"

[Walter_Adams]

Hello,

I'm having an issue with "Embed live data in PowerPoint" on the July 2023 version of Power BI.

Steps:

1) I create a file in PBI Desktop with a slicer and a filter in it. I have a "Filter on all Pages" filter set to "Jan 2023" and the slicer in the visual set to "slicer value 1". Both are visualized in a card on the screen.

2) I published this to my workspace on the Power BI service. 

3) I opened the report on the Power BI service and exported with "PowerPoint Live data". I did this once with the checkbox "Embed report with the data filters you selected" checked and once without.

4) In Powerpoint, I create 2 slides in which I embedded a  Power BI visual in which I pasted both URLs from step 3.

5) Both slides look identical at this stage. I save and close the Powerpoint.

Issue:

6) I reopen the local Power BI file and change the filter value to another value e.g. "Feb 2023" and republish to the Power BI service.

7) On reopening the Power BI service report, the filter has been updated as expected

8 ) When I open the Powerpoint file, after an automatic or manual refresh of the embedded live link reports, I expect at least one of the 2 pages (either the one with saved filters or the one without) to have updated to the new filter value.

This is however NOT the case: both remain on the originally set filter value of "Jan 2023" which is either a bug or I didn't understand how  this is supposed to work.

Can anyone help me to understand what is wrong here?

Thanks in advance

[Walter_Adams]

The core issue really is that whether you export with or without "Embed report with the data filters you selected" the flag set, the export always happens WITH the filters set. This can only be a bug to my opinion.

Walter

[v-zhangti]

Hi, @Walter_Adams 

It seems that the issue you are experiencing is related to the fact that the filter selections are not being persisted after the browser closes/refreshes. This behavior is by design and sticky state/persistent filters are not guaranteed to work when the user closes the browser/refreshes the page. However, if the user interacts with Power BI like navigating to home and back to the report, the sticky filters/persistent filters will work as expected.

Additionally, there is a known issue where Power BI reports filter issue, Power BI reports not keeping filter settings for Power BI Pro Limited. One workaround for this issue is to update the bookmark for every filter change to keep that filter setting. Using bookmarks in Power BI helps you capture the currently configured view of a report page, including filtering and the state of visuals, and later lets you go back to that state by simply selecting the saved bookmark.

It is also worth noting that there is a limitation to the "Embed live data in PowerPoint" feature in that it exports only one page at a time. If you need multiple pages, you should use the add-in and provide different report links for different pages.

View and present live Power BI data in PowerPoint - Power BI | Microsoft Learn

Best Regards,

Community Support Team _Charlotte

If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.

[Walter_Adams]

Hello @v-zhangti ,

Thank you for the reply. 

I see what you're saying about the sticky filters and the the issue where keeping bookmarks is a workaround.

Both these issues are in the Power BI service so I don't know how they translate to the plug-in in PowerPoint.

Assuming that the Powerpoint pluging simply shows an embedded webpage (using a hidden browser such as webview2 or similar), I went ahead and opened the report in Edge (as this is likely what is used by PowerPoint behind the scenes) and navigated to home and back to reaply the current filters.

I then went back to PowerPoint to see if this has updated the filters (even did a refresh on the plug-in) and no such luck.

And yes, I am using the plug-in in PowerPoint as you suggested simply having multiple PowerPoint pages with on each of them a plug-in window with a different report URL in it.

So unfortunately your suggestions, although very appreciated, have not provided a workaround or solution to my problem at this time.

Thanks again,

Walter