Taking over ownership of dataflow from someone who has left the organization

[hlad]

Hi,

We have couple dataflows which are failing to refresh. This is because the dataflows were owned by a colleague who has now left the organisation.

This is the error I get : "This dataflow can't be refreshed because it doesn't have a valid owner. {"RootActivityId":"908b5964-5b47-4348-88ee-0063f05ebbad"}"

Any suggestions on how i can take over the dataflows? At the moment when when i click on more options for the dataflow if does not give me any options. It shows as if its doing something, but nothing happens.

Any help will be appreciated. Thanks

Regards,

Hitesh

[hlad · Accepted solution]

Here is the workaround that was provided to me by a Microsoft Support Escalation Engineer which worked.       

This issue often appears when the original owner of the dataflow has left the organisation. The owner of the dataflow shows as blank and other users are not able  to take over the dataflow.
 
Using the Power BI UI, the only option is to restore the owner of the dataflow and then take over with other user.  If  this is not possible, the you can take over by using Postman.  This tool can be downloaded from https://app.getpostman.com/app/download/win64
 
Takeover Dataflow using postman

1. Gather browser Traces (see steps below)
2. Using Browser Trace, Get the folder ID and Request URL
3. Using Browser Trace, get Access Token for your user account

1. Get Dataflow ID from Power BI Service
2. Use Postman send post request, URL will be as this example (replacing highlighted parts with the URL, dataflow ID and folder ID) https://wabi-south-east-asia-redirect.analysis.windows.net/metadata/dataflows/a420efd0-45e6-4235-8e3...

1. Enter Request Body as IsAllowNativeQueriesChecked = false

1. Add Authorization token

 
 
 
Browser Traces

1. Launch Google Chrome and navigate to the Power BI site.
2. Click the button in the top right corner > More tools > Developer Tools 
3. Select the Network tab in the dev tools console. Also enable "Preserve log" option as highlighted below:

1. Got to the workspace where dataflow resides and try to access the settings
2. Once completed, right click anywhere in the left side first column in the trace window and select: "Save as HAR with content"
3. Using application such as Fiddler we can open the browser Trace file. To download and Install Fiddler https://www.telerik.com/download/fiddler

[lionx]

@hlad have you gotten over this issue? 

[hlad]

Yes I got the issue resolved.

[NandanHegde]

click on settings in dataflow:

then click on take over:

[hlad]

Unfortunately I cannot even get settings. When i click on the ellipsis I get this as if its opening, but it does not.

I have no issues with opening the settings for dataflows owned by me. The issue is only with ones that were owned by an ex employee.