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Allow Free Users to see Reports that have Row Level Security Roles (made by a PRO)

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Martín on 24 Feb 2017 21:55:24

It should be urgent to allow Free Users to see Reports that have Row Level Security Roles.
I got the PRO Trial for my work account and created a Report intended to be shared with different groups of (Free) users, each group with an specific Role.
It turns out they cannot look into the Report now since PRO License it's required.
Does this means I need to create a single different Report with a different filter each? This seriously diminishes the usefulness of the tool. What's the point of the PRO license if anything the PRO does cannot be shared with the rest?

Comments (29)
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cb015b92 09cb-4147-b055-ce60d7da089a on 05 Jul 2020 23:18:12

RE: Allow Free Users to see Reports that have Row Level Security Roles (made by a PRO)

100% true. Initially when I switched from Tableau, the only reason was pricing.. $10 pm ! great. As an ISV, I immediately started planning things and pricing strategy and how I can provide much more value thru PBI. However, as I digged further, I found a different truth. And the actually costing really hurt my plans and now I am unable to move ahead due to this. If the pricing was justified, there would only be more developer licenses per customer. Now, MS has just one pro license from me.

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6f12e163 dd00-401d-a156-e3a5d3c7c574 on 05 Jul 2020 23:13:42

RE: Allow Free Users to see Reports that have Row Level Security Roles (made by a PRO)

I have a similar scenario,


I want to make a dashboard on Power BI. and It only allows me to share it if I have a Pro account. (makes sense)

But, the person, with whom i want to share my dashboard, also needs a Pro account to access the dashboard (which doesn't make sense). Now, my organization has 1000+ employees and we want to make this one dashboard available for everyone to see. But, is it worth buying, 1000+ pro liscences for all the other employees who'll have to JUST SEE THE DASHBOARD. I don't think it's worth that. I know the policies were revised in 2017 mid., but still it's absurd.

P.S: I know we can share reports to SharePoint / embed it in a website. But i'm here talking about dashboards in particular.

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988ecc19 26a0-46c9-bd7b-0c7542841242 on 05 Jul 2020 23:09:46

RE: Allow Free Users to see Reports that have Row Level Security Roles (made by a PRO)

Require a Pro license in order to share a dashboard out, but do not require a Pro license in order to have a dashboard shared with them. We just lost a massive amount of users due to this, which has caused a negative opinion of the product and are now spreading the bad word throughout an organization of 40,000 employees/users.

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2c08f769 5e47-4ad0-b27d-992e2095446e on 05 Jul 2020 23:07:24

RE: Allow Free Users to see Reports that have Row Level Security Roles (made by a PRO)

Same problem here. We are 200 employees in our company. I'm the only one building reports in Power Bi but wan't to share them with all users. Today i only share them with the partners in out company since it will be to expensive to have to license all 200 users with af Pro license. So now we have 30 Pro licenses for the partners and me. The partners only view the reports. We would like an option to license all users (viewers) at a lower fee. All viewers will only view reports once a week so the present licens options at much to expensive for our needs.

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c34473ae dea4-4c96-9eed-f8c109904e79 on 05 Jul 2020 22:57:54

RE: Allow Free Users to see Reports that have Row Level Security Roles (made by a PRO)

When a Pro/Premium user shares either an App or just the Dashboard, a Free Power BI user must be able to at least view it

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3721bc9f b41b-46b5-b7db-4b667a4befa7 on 05 Jul 2020 22:49:55

RE: Allow Free Users to see Reports that have Row Level Security Roles (made by a PRO)

We started gaining traction within our company utilizing Power BI for several metrics. Executives were very impressed and enjoyed the interaction with reports. With this recent change, all executives and employees can no longer access any of the reports.

This is a severe step backwards. I have no current alternative. Embedding in a PowerPoint isn't good enough. Power BI premium isn't even ready, and when it is, I am confident my company will not fork over the monthly fee for them to view the reports again.

Just like Visio, a user should pay for the licence to build a layout, but viewing the result should be free. Power BI should behave this way. Oh well, just when Power BI is gaining traction too. Was good while it lasted.

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f2e77c6f 8689-4f97-808d-41ad9568ed14 on 05 Jul 2020 22:49:51

RE: Allow Free Users to see Reports that have Row Level Security Roles (made by a PRO)

enable free licencsing for Dashboard vizualization.

large organization will not pay a pro licence to each employee.

Paying licence should concern only editors. Dashboard viewing should be free.
Otherwise, our organization (as many others) will stop using Power BI

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320f8499 509e-4b6c-a0a5-aa5da42e5637 on 05 Jul 2020 22:41:58

RE: Allow Free Users to see Reports that have Row Level Security Roles (made by a PRO)

The point is you put it in a group. Groups are for pro users, altough I also want this to be changed.

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ddca124e c3fc-4bf9-a32e-1b01c3dba42f on 05 Jul 2020 22:16:41

RE: Allow Free Users to see Reports that have Row Level Security Roles (made by a PRO)

It would increase organizational dependency if free users could view reports in group workspaces.