Masked Fields from SQL Server

[benanic]

Hi All - I have a report which pulls from MS SQL Server 2016 and some of the fields are masked. I gave myself permissions to see the unmasked data in the database. After doing so, I refreshed a desktop file of this report then the masked data became visible so I published and I was able to see the values on service, but without having made any other changes, the masked data in the report reverted back to showing as 'xxx' and blanks in the report which is published on service. I opened the desktop file, refreshed, and the mask data was still appearing as unmasked in the desktop file, so I published to service again but the data is masked on service now. I can't figure out why it suddenly switched to being masked again on service and why the same steps will not make the data visibile when I publish to service. Any advice on this matter is greatly appreciated!

[NandanHegde · Accepted solution]

Below might be the possible cause of the scenario :

1) In desktop you are authenticating to the databae via your account which has unmask rights

2) In Power BI service, your report is getting refreshed via on Premises data gateway.

The credential set up in the gateway might not have the unmask rights on the database, thereby leading to masked data becoming imported within the PowerBI service on next refresh