Troubleshooting Power BI Report Server Email Delivery

Imagine your operations manager checking her inbox before the morning meeting. She normally has a PDF showing yesterday’s orders and the stock position by eight. Today there is nothing. She asks you for a copy, and you open the paginated report in Power BI Report Server.

The figures are there. You can export them yourself. But that still leaves the question of why the automatic delivery did not arrive, and whether someone will have to send it by hand again tomorrow.

First, find where the email was set up. It may be a built-in Power BI Report Server subscription, or it may be a PBRS job that runs the report and sends the file. Both can deliver paginated reports, but they have different schedules, sending accounts and records of what happened.

If your team uses PBRS, its History View helps you follow the report preparation and each destination. That is particularly useful when your manager’s email is part of a larger job that also creates a meeting pack or saves an archive copy. For a built-in subscription, begin with the subscription’s result in Power BI Report Server.

Power BI Report Server can run a paginated report on a schedule and deliver it by email or to a file share. You can choose the report parameters and export format, so a daily PDF sent to the same operations team may already be covered by a built-in subscription.

It also supports data-driven subscriptions where the edition and permissions allow them. These use a database query to supply recipients, delivery settings and report parameters. Sending different versions to different people is therefore not, by itself, a capability that only PBRS provides.

For your manager’s existing subscription, open the paginated report’s Manage > Subscriptions page and read the Result for the affected run. If that arrangement meets the whole requirement, repairing the fault may be all you need. Microsoft’s subscription guide explains the built-in controls.

Where PBRS adds to that routine

Now suppose the manager wants orders, stock and outstanding deliveries in one email. She would prefer one combined PDF for the meeting, while her analyst needs the Excel outputs in a workbook. The team also wants a copy saved to SharePoint.

PBRS can prepare those paginated reports together, send several attachments, merge PDFs into one document or combine Excel outputs into a workbook. You can add email and other destinations to the same reporting job, rather than leaving someone to assemble and forward the finished pack.

PBRS also lets the delivery data control the report parameters, recipients, messages, filenames, formats and destinations. Its job history helps you investigate which report or destination failed. Those are useful differences to evaluate against the work your team actually does, rather than assuming Power BI Report Server has no scheduler.

Return to this morning’s operations report. Work forwards from its expected start time, looking for the first step that did not complete. You can then correct the cause without disturbing the parts that still work.

If the delivery never started

For a built-in subscription, check whether it is active and whether its schedule has expired. Your administrator should also check that Power BI Report Server and SQL Server Agent are running. There will be no email to trace until the report job has started.

For a PBRS job, look for the scheduled run in System Monitor > History View. If it is missing, check that the schedule is enabled and that a calendar, operating window or blackout period has not excluded that time. Then check the PBRS scheduler.

One familiar clue is that the report arrives when you run the job yourself, but not after you log off Windows. The background scheduling application depends on that user session. The Windows Service can run without it, provided its account can reach the report and the resources used by the job. The PBRS scheduler guide explains the setup.

If the job started but no report was prepared

Read the report error before changing the mail settings. A changed database password, a moved report or a parameter that no longer matches can stop the PDF being created. Opening the report in your own browser does not prove that the unattended job can run it with its saved settings.

For PBRS, check the reporting-server connection and report path, then the Datasources and Report settings. Use the same dates and site parameters as the failed run. Access to Power BI Report Server and access to the report’s database are separate checks.

The PBRS guide for on-premises paginated reports explains those controls. Open the matching Error Log entry and keep the actual error with the report name and time.

For a built-in subscription, read Result and ask the administrator to inspect the matching report-server log. Check any changes to stored credentials or report parameters since the last successful delivery. Microsoft’s delivery troubleshooting guide covers these causes.

If the report is blank or one attachment is missing

Your manager’s pack may contain several reports. Expand a PBRS Partial Success result to see which report or destination failed before rerunning the whole pack. An archive copy can help you see which files were prepared, but it does not establish that the email arrived.

Check the selected reporting period too. A paginated report can genuinely return no rows. If PBRS is configured to withhold blank reports, the missing attachment may be the intended response. Agree whether your manager should receive an empty report, a notification or nothing when there is no activity.

If the file was ready but the email failed

Now follow the sending account and destination. A rejected sender, failed authentication and a connection timeout point to different problems. Give the mail administrator the exact error so they can check the right setting.

For PBRS, test the account selected for this job, including a schedule-specific SMTP or Office 365 account. A working default account does not prove a different account can send. For a built-in subscription, check the affected Power BI Report Server instance’s E-mail Settings with the administrator.

Check the recipient address, group restrictions and attachment size. Your on-premises mail system sets its own limits; cloud Power BI attachment limits do not define this delivery. If the meeting pack has outgrown email, PBRS can place the files in SharePoint or a folder as another destination. Agree the arrangement with your manager so she knows where to look.

If the send looks successful but the inbox is empty

Ask the mail administrator to trace the message using the sender, recipient and time. A message may have been quarantined, held for moderation or rejected after the reporting system handed it over.

For PBRS SMTP sends, check the Email Log. For Exchange or Office 365, check the sending account’s Sent Items. A successful submission does not prove inbox receipt. Establish what happened before sending again, so your manager does not receive several copies while you investigate.

Test the morning your manager will experience

After the correction, send one controlled delivery to an approved mailbox. Open the attachment and check the date, pages and figures. Then test an automatic run as well. Your manager needs tomorrow’s PDF to arrive without someone pressing Execute.

For PBRS jobs, review the failure notifications, retry settings and blank-report response while you are there. Choose who should hear about a failure, and test that response. A temporary connection problem may justify a retry; an uncertain email submission needs checking first.

Your application may ask PBRS to prepare the paginated report once the overnight orders are ready. Keep that request together with the reporting date and returned execution ID, so you can follow the manager’s delivery from the application into the PBRS job.

If the request times out, check the existing execution before submitting another. The report may still be running, or its email may already have been sent. This check is for deliveries managed by PBRS; built-in Power BI Report Server subscriptions have their own records.

GET /api/Schedule/GetExecutionStatus?ExecutionId={ExecutionId}
Authorization: bearer {pbrsAccessToken}

Return to the meeting room. Your manager has the correct PDF, you know where this morning’s delivery stopped, and the next automatic run has been checked. There is also an agreed person to contact if tomorrow’s report is late.

Power BI Report Server’s built-in paginated subscriptions may already cover your delivery. Keep them when they do. If your team still assembles several reports, merges files, prepares different packs for different readers or saves copies to other places, use that routine to evaluate what PBRS adds.

The Power BI report automation page explains the wider workflow. To plan delivery of your paginated reports, start with one pack your team currently prepares or resends by hand.
Explore paginated report delivery with PBRS