Manage access to Power BI report with edit rights to my team members who will also be updating and editing the same report?

Question

Manage access to Power BI report with edit rights to my team members who will also be updating and editing the same report?

Patel, Ami:(Exelon) 20

Need help in managing access to Power BI report with team members who will be assisting in editing/updating the same report on Power BI desktop. One of my team members created a Power BI report and shared access to the report with editing permissions. But when I download the report to the Power BI desktop from the webservices, it creates a copy and stores it on my drive or device. Once I make updates and publish the report with my saved changes it creates a different version of the report and does not save the changes on the original report version. How do I save the changes to the original report, and can I remove the older versions from my desktop app? If so, how do I remove the older versions?

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Answer accepted by question author

Ian-Ng 14,150 Microsoft External Staff Moderator

Hi @Patel, Ami:(Exelon),

Thank you for your question.

Based on your description, the main issue is that a Power BI report is being republished as a new version instead of overwriting the original, alongside questions about how local version copies are managed.

Since this specific workflow involves Power BI Desktop and Service collaboration, it falls outside the scope of this Microsoft 365 and Office / Publisher forum. Your query is much better suited for the Power BI forums.

User's image

In the Microsoft Fabric Community, which feature dedicated spaces specifically tailored to these publishing and product behaviors. User's image

The reason I recommend posting there is that the Power BI forum is designed for exactly these kinds of questions, including report ownership, publishing behavior, version differences, workspace collaboration, and editing best practices. I believe the Community forum as one of the recommended channels to use when troubleshooting Power BI issues.

Posting there gives you the best chance of getting accurate guidance, since that community includes Power BI experts and experienced peers who regularly help with report publishing behavior, version management, workspace collaboration, and editing best practices.

I hope this points you to the most suitable support channel for your issue and helps.

Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

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2 additional answers

Your answer

Answer 1

Power BI reports published to the Power BI service are always managed as separate items from the local .pbix files on each author’s machine. Downloading from the service to Power BI Desktop creates a new .pbix file on the local drive; publishing from Desktop uploads that file as a report + semantic model to a workspace. There is no “check‑out/check‑in” of the same local file across multiple authors.

To have multiple team members edit the same report and keep a single “original” in the service, use these practices:

Use a shared workspace

Store the report and its semantic model in a shared Power BI workspace (not My workspace).
Assign team members appropriate workspace roles (Contributor, Member, or Admin) so they can edit the report in the Power BI service Editing view.
Editing view is only available to the report creator or users with Member/Admin/Contributor roles in that workspace; Viewer role cannot edit.

Edit directly in the Power BI service

Open the report in the Power BI service.
Switch to Editing view and make changes there.
Save in the service; this updates the single report item instead of creating new versions from Desktop.

If Desktop editing is required

Treat the .pbix file as a shared source file stored in a shared location such as OneDrive or SharePoint, with versioning.
Only one person should work on the .pbix at a time; after publishing, others should either:
- Continue editing in the service, or
- Re‑download the updated .pbix if they must work in Desktop.
When publishing from Desktop, ensure the same workspace and report/semantic model are selected so the existing items are overwritten rather than creating new ones.

Removing older local versions

Older .pbix copies on the local machine are just files; delete them from the file system (e.g., from Documents or wherever they were saved). This does not affect the report in the Power BI service.

Managing report lifecycle with shared semantic models

A recommended pattern is to publish one report + semantic model to a workspace, then allow others to connect via a Power BI service live connection and build their own reports in their own workspaces. This promotes reuse of the semantic model and avoids multiple authors constantly overwriting the same .pbix.

These approaches ensure a single authoritative report in the service, while local .pbix files are treated as working copies that can be safely deleted when no longer needed.

References:

Answer 2

Hi @Patel, Ami:(Exelon) ,
Your question is closely related to a problem I wrote about: how multiple people can work on the same Power BI report without accidentally publishing an outdated local copy and overwriting someone else's changes.

The key point is that the .pbix you download to Power BI Desktop is a local copy, not a live editable version of the report in the Service. If several team members work from different copies, publishing one of them can effectively put an older state back into the workspace.

I wrote a practical walkthrough of how to organize this with Power BI Pro, using a single controlled source for the .pbix, SharePoint/Teams versioning, check-in/check-out, and a simple publishing protocol:

https://blog.hogaria.tech/publicar-entre-varios-sin-perder-trabajo/

The article is currently in Spanish, but automatic translation should make it reasonably easy to follow.

It is based on two related pieces about the local PBIX copy and the team notification workflow, but the article above is the one most directly applicable to your situation.