Subscriptions not being sent

[mathiasbj]

Hi
I have a report (live connection) with two pages and would like to set up subscriptions. 

It works completely fine for one of the pages (let's call it Report1), but not for the other (Report2). The email is simply not being sent.

I am admin of the datamodel and thus RLS should automatically be bypassed.

I have one RLS which filters on "Sales Person Code". Report1 has a filter on Sales Person Code where it filters on three codes.

In Report2 this filter is removed = showing all Sales Person Codes.

How come that the subscription is not working when no filter is applied to Sales Person Code and I'm admin?

[v-priyankata]

Hi @mathiasbj 

May I ask if you have resolved this issue? If so, please mark the helpful reply and accept it as the solution. This will be helpful for other community members who have similar problems to solve it faster.

Thank you.

[mathiasbj · Accepted solution]

It seems that the issue were due to performance overload as one of the tables includes images. 
After removing the images the subscription works just fine.

[rohit1991]

Hi @mathiasbj 

This is a subtle but common issue when using RLS with subscriptions. Even though you're an admin, Power BI still enforces RLS when generating reports for subscriptions it doesn’t automatically bypass it.

In your case, Report1 applies the RLS filter on "Sales Person Code", so the report stays within the allowed scope and works fine. But for Report2, removing that filter causes the report to try and show data for all sales people. If the RLS role restricts access beyond a certain scope, Power BI blocks the report from rendering fully, and the subscription fails silently.

To fix this, you can either:

• Adjust the RLS role to allow broader access for subscription scenarios, or

• Create a separate version of the report without RLS (if appropriate), just for subscriptions.

[mathiasbj]

Thanks for great answer!
I tried to create a RLS group (called FullAccess) and added my own admin user to this group. Shouldn't this work then? It doesnt 😞

[rohit1991]

Hi @mathiasbj

Yeah, it’s a common catch! Even if you're an admin or created the report, subscriptions still run under the RLS rules defined in the dataset  not your user permissions in the workspace.

So just adding yourself to a role like "FullAccess" doesn’t automatically bypass anything unless that role is set up to actually ignore filters like the "Sales Person Code". If that role still filters anything, it’ll impact the subscription.

If Report2 is failing because it's trying to show all sales codes, Power BI might be blocking it due to how RLS is applied. A quick fix would be to create a role that doesn’t apply any filters at all  basically an “Unrestricted” role  and use that specifically for subscriptions.

If security isn’t a concern, another option is to create a copy of the dataset without RLS just for reports that need to be emailed out.

[mathiasbj]

Thanks for super quick response!
What exactly do you mean by this "... and configure the subscription or dataset access accordingly".
As I wrote before, I have already tried to make an unrestricted role called FullAccess. How do I add this to the subscription?

Actually, I also tried to remove all the RLS groups from the dataset - republish it to service - but the subscription still didn't work. If I then applied the Sales Person Code filter it worked. So somehow it seems that it still tried to fetch the RLS eventhough it has been deleted. That is very strange and Im not sure what the issue can be?

[rohit1991]

Hi @mathiasbj

In most cases, it’s related to how Row-Level Security (RLS) is set up. Power BI subscriptions won’t send if the report renders blank under the user’s security context and RLS can sometimes filter out all data for that user, especially if you're using something like a "Sales Person Code" to limit access.

In your case, since the page without RLS works fine and others don’t, that’s a strong indicator RLS is blocking the visuals from rendering which then stops the subscription from sending.

A couple of things worth trying:

• Temporarily remove or relax the RLS to see if subscriptions go through just as a test.

• Double-check if the users you're testing with are definitely mapped correctly in the RLS table.

• Also, make sure there aren't large visuals (like heavy tables or images) that might slow things down, though RLS sounds like the main issue here.

[mathiasbj]

Thanks for answering!

I tried to create a copy of the PBIX file, place it in a new workspace, remove all RLS groups, republish and make create subscription, but still nothing is being sent.

I guess its data related then. Maybe due to the relations between tables?

[andrewsommer]

Even though you are an admin, subscriptions are sent based on the security context of the user setting them up. If RLS is applied in any way, it might be affecting Report2 differently than Report1.

Since Report1 has a filter applied (limiting to three Sales Person Codes), it might be working because it aligns with the RLS settings.  Report2 removes the filter, meaning it tries to show all data, but RLS might still be restricting what the subscription service can access, causing it to fail.

If the dataset enforces RLS at the data model level, even as an admin, subscriptions might not bypass it in a live connection.  Check if the RLS rule on "Sales Person Code" is affecting Report2 in a way that blocks subscription emails from being sent.

Please mark this post as solution if it helps you. Appreciate Kudos.

[mathiasbj]

Thanks for quick answer!

If I apply the same three codes in the Sales Person Code filter on Report2, the subscription email works.

However, I would like to be able to create lots of subscriptions moving forward - but this is not working 😞