Only Admin can update workspace permissions, Members have to remove and re-add.

[SubaruSTi]

I have been doing some sleuthing on this topic, but maybe my google-fu is not up to snuff on the terminology to use.

I have been getting several requests over the last 6 months as our user base has grown to update permissions of people within the workspaces I create for them.  It has gotten to the point where I want to address this because it is not just one or two a month.  Closer to one or two a week now.

The highest level of access I give the "owners" of these workspaces is Member.  I'll spare you the details as to why, but could be a topic for another day.

So, we limit them to Member access.  What they have found is that in order to say promote a viewer to contributor or a contributor to member, they have to completely remove the user from the workspace and re-add them.  Whereas I can just update their permissions as an Admin.

Per the MS docs, it looks like members should have the same level of capability.

I am not sure if removing/adding the user is an issue yet if they were a contributor and had published content to the workspace, but I assume removing them and re-adding them wouldn't change report ownership or the credentials cached for say SharePoint connections.  More of just an inconvienence than anything.

Is this expected behavior, or a setting that can be tuned somehwere?  I have limited access as a Power BI admin and have little to no access to the Azure AD side, so I am not sure if it is something obvious or not as it is hard for me to poke around.

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Hi @SubaruSTi 

At present, only the role of Admin in Service can add, delete, and modify user roles.

For the role of Member, all he can do is to add Member role and lower roles to other users. Member does not have the right to modify roles for preventing him from giving himself higher authority. Of course, if you have this need, you can provide your opinions to Ideas.

https://ideas.powerbi.com/ideas/

Best Regards

Community Support Team _ Ailsa Tao

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

[lbendlin]

There's nothing in the tenant admin for that. Go ahead and open your SR - usually Microsoft are rather swift in responding to Pro tickets.

[lbendlin]

If you are on Premium Capacity then you are holding it wrong. You do not give access to the workspace/dataset/report to anyone but developers and ITG testers.  All other users need to be given access to the app, and the app only.

[SubaruSTi]

I don't think you are understanding the implementation we have.  We have many workspaces that are stood up and handed over to the teams that "own" them.

You are not addressing my question though.  I am not interested in the design aspect, only the difference in experience between Member and Admin when it comes to managing the users within a workspace.

Can that be fixed or not from a PBI tenant perspective, or do I need to open a SR with Microsoft if this is not expected behavior?

[lbendlin]

Assuming this is a v2 workspace:

Roles in the new workspaces in Power BI - Power BI | Microsoft Docs

[SubaruSTi]

I am not sure I follow.  It is a premium workspace running on premium capacity.

Both users (the member and the person listed as contributor) are both licensed.

The person with the member role cannot promote the person with the contributor role to member level without first removing the contributor and re-adding them as a member.

The same thing when the viewer has a pro license they cannot be promoted to be a contributor unless removed and re-added by the member as well.

Me as an Admin can just click on the options next to their name and select the new role I would like to assign them without having to remove them first.

I am trying to give the Member roles the same experience I have in that regard.