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Nagaraj_D's avatar
Nagaraj_D
Icon for Advocate I rankAdvocate I
8 months ago

Paginated Reports Back Navigation Fails When Multi-Value Parameter Uses Select All

Hi all,

Recently, I’ve been investigating an issue in Power BI Paginated Reports where I encounter a problem when navigating back to the main report from a subreport after using the “Select All” option in the main report multi-value parameters.

Issue description

  • The main report contains a multi-value parameter with “Select All” enabled.
  • Navigation to the subreport is done using an Action (Go to report).
  • When Select All is used in the main report:
  • Navigation from main → subreport works fine.
  • On using the built-in Back button to return from subreport → main report, the report fails with a parameter validation error.
  • If I manually deselect one or more values (instead of using Select All), the report works correctly when navigating back from the subreport.
    Note: The paginated report with the Select All option was working correctly earlier this year without any issues.
    This error started occurring suddenly, even though no changes were made on the report side.
    The same report continues to work fine on the SSRS on-premises report server.

PFA...


main report with manually deselectedsub report loaded for manually deselection of one valuemain report loaded for select Allsub report loaded for select Allwhen navigate back to main report got error.

 

Question

Is this a known limitation or a regression in Power BI Service paginated reports? If so, is it expected to be fixed in an upcoming update?

 

Thanks in advance for any guidance or confirmation.

Need Help

6 Replies

  • cengizhanarslan's avatar
    cengizhanarslan
    Icon for Super User rankSuper User
    8 months ago

    What’s happening is that Select All is not stored as the full explicit list of values. When you navigate to the subreport and then use the Back button, Report Builder tries to re-validate the parameter using a stale or incomplete value set, which causes the validation error. When you manually select values, the parameter contains an explicit list, so validation succeeds.

     

    Practical workarounds:.

    • Use a custom “All” value (e.g. -1) and handle it in the dataset query instead of the built-in Select All.

    • Convert the parameter logic to explicitly expand “All” into all values in the dataset.

    WHERE
(
    @MyParam = '-1'
    OR MyColumn IN (@MyParam)
)
​
    • Nagaraj_D's avatar
      Nagaraj_D
      Icon for Advocate I rankAdvocate I
      8 months ago

      Hi cengizhanarslan ,

      This report has been working correctly for the past two years.
      Has there been any recent update or change on the Power BI Service side that could have caused this issue?

      The solution you mentioned would require changes at the individual report/dataset level.
      Could you please suggest an alternative solution that does not require modifying each report?

      • v-veshwara-msft's avatar
        v-veshwara-msft
        Icon for Community Support rankCommunity Support
        8 months ago

        Hi Nagaraj_D ,

        Thanks for the clarification.

        There has been no publicly documented or announced change in the Power BI Service specific to paginated reports that explains this behavior. That said, service side updates are rolled out regularly, and changes can affect how parameter state is restored during navigation, even if the report definition itself has not changed. This would also explain why the report worked for a long time and started failing without any updates to the report.

         

        At the moment, there is no tenant level or global setting that can change how the built in Back button handles Select All for multi value parameters. That logic is handled by the service and cannot be overridden centrally. As a result, avoiding report level changes limits the available options.

         

        If modifying individual reports is not feasible, the only alternatives are to avoid relying on the Back button for navigation or to raise a Microsoft support ticket so this can be validated as a service side issue or regression. A support case is also the best way to confirm whether a fix can be applied without changes at the report level.

         

        If you do open a support ticket and receive an update, sharing the outcome here would be helpful for others facing the same behavior.

         

        Please reach out for further assistance.
        Thank you.