URGENT: Out-of-tenant shared dashboards all empty this morning!

[CalebBlanton]

HELP! Dashboards shared with other domains (out-of-tentant) are no longer working for us this morning.  These very same dashboards worked last night.

Description

It appears that any out-of-tenant shared dashboard is showing up blank all of the sudden.  These dashboards were created from imported PBIX files.  We "live pinned" the imported report and created a new dashboard in the process, then shared this dashboard with out-of tenant users.  

Symptoms

The dashboard page shows the title of the dashboard "live pinned" pane, but the contents are empty (it just shows a greyed out Power BI logo in the middle of the report tile).  Clicking the report tile title brings you to the report page, which is mostly a big blank white page with the Power BI logo in the upper left and that's it.  

Testing Steps

• Tested with multiple out-of-tenant accounts, all blank.
• Tested multiple dashboards being shared with out-of-tenant accounts, all blank.
• Un-shared and re-shared dashboards to out-of-tenant accounts and they are still blank.
• Tested in-tenant sharing and it works for the very same dashboards that are broken for out-of-tenant shares.  
• Tested editing of the shared dashboards in owner accounts and it works fine also.
• Verified issue exists in the latest versions of Chrome, IE, Edge and FireFox.
• Verified no client-side Javascript errors are thrown in any of the browsers tested.

We are going to try re-saving these PBIXs with the latest version of Power BI Desktop and re-sharing but my gut is telling me the issue is on the app.powerbi.com site.

The timing for this issue is most unfortunate as we have a major launch this weekend of a release which will highlight reports we've worked on for months.

It hurts, it burns.  🙂 

Thanks,

Caleb Blanton

[CalebBlanton]

I haven't seen this happen again and given its sporadic nature, Microsoft Support couldn't really determine the cause.

This appears to be working for us now so I will mark this topic as Solved.  

Thanks!

[Seth_C_Bauer]

@CalebBlanton Do the level of licenses match for internal dashboard and external user? Pro Feature use in dashboard would necessitate a Pro license for the external user.

Was scheduled refresh added to data set? - this would also be considered a Pro feature.

[CalebBlanton]

Thanks for the reply!

Only free features are used in these dashboards; according to this article as long as refreshes are daily or less frequent, free version still applies (unless I read that wrong).  We have tested with dashboards where underlying datasets have scheduled refreshes as well as dashboards simply imported from PBIX without a Refresh Schedule attached.

All still blank.  Do out-of-tenant shares work for you?

Update: Also important to note is that these same dashboards worked last night for the same out-of-tenant emails.

[Seth_C_Bauer]

@CalebBlanton Do the external users use free licenses? I have just tested the end to end with datasets and was able to see the dashboard shared to an external user. One Excel, one just data I added into the PBIX. (both have Pro license.

I'm assuming the data source is an excel file or static file located in a OneDrive for Business?

Another quick check. if the external users are using free. They can do a free trial for 60 days. if it is a licensing issue you would immediately see it.

A fast way to get prompted is to go to Get Data -> Databases -> SQL Server Analysis Services -> Connect (this will prompt for 60 trial.)

[CalebBlanton]

Really appreciate you doing some testing.  My first experience with the Power BI community is turning out very positive thanks to you.

Free licensing is used on both sides of the fence.

As far as data source, we have an Azure SQL database from which we pull data.  Refresh schedule was defined at a daily frequency for one of the dashboards, but just using the cached dataset previosuly pulled from Azure (using PBI Desktop) for the other PBIX dashboards tested.

What's incredibly strange is that I had my team (geographically distributed) try again just now and the issue is no longer happening; dashboards and reports appear as expected.  Could it be that the Power BI team has fixed already? Or perhaps this is a sporadic issue (i.e., depending on which server node I end up on the app.powerbi.com farm)...

This is very strange indeed.  I swear I'm not insane, though I will not reveal my actual % Sanity for privacy reasons.  It is trending down today to be sure.

I opened a support request with Microsoft this morning as well so I will see if they reply confirming some change was made (or not).  I will update this ticket with what I learn for the community's edification or if the issue resurfaces.

[Seth_C_Bauer · Accepted solution]

@CalebBlanton Bizarre. But, I've read some really odd scenerios. Glad things are working again. If I was a betting man, I would say either a temporary glitch or something changed in the solution on your end, before assuming a random push was rolled out to resolve this by the team. I look forward to seeing what they say in your Service ticket.