Documentation for the "About PowerBI" box?

[AMD0791]

Can anyone point me to documentation or provide explanations for the different elements listed in the "About Power BI" pop-up box when using the web portal at app.powerbi.com ?

I'm trying to understand which elements should be the same for all users and some insight on why some users in our tenant may see different values for the "Client version" and the "App Instance ID"

Service Version:

Client Version:

Activity ID:  

App Instance ID:

User object ID:  I assume this is the Entra GUID for the individual user and would obviously be unique for each user

Tenant URL:  This is pretty self explanatory and I assume should be the same for all users.

Your data is stored in XXXXX.  (I assume this should be the same for all users in our tenant?)

Thank you!

[Poojara_D12 · Accepted solution]

Hi @AMD0791 

The "About Power BI" pop-up box in the Power BI web portal (app.powerbi.com) displays several technical details that can help understand the environment and session context. Here’s an explanation of each element and insights into their expected consistency across users in the same tenant:

Service Version: This indicates the version of the Power BI service backend that is running. Since this is the cloud service managed by Microsoft, this version should generally be consistent for all users accessing the service at the same time, unless there is a staged rollout or update happening.

Client Version: This shows the version of the client software or browser-based client code that the user’s session is using. Because Power BI is accessed via web browsers, differences in client versions can occur depending on the browser type, browser version, or any client-side updates. Different users may see different client versions due to differences in their browsers or cached client code. So, this is expected to vary between users.

Activity ID: This is a unique identifier generated for the current user activity or session, useful for tracing and debugging specific operations in the service logs. Each action or session typically has a distinct Activity ID, so it will differ from user to user and even between different actions for the same user.

App Instance ID: This identifies the specific instance of the Power BI application environment that the user is connected to. In multi-tenant or multi-region deployments, or if Microsoft uses multiple backend instances for load balancing, different users—even within the same tenant—may connect to different app instances, hence the values can vary across users.

User Object ID: This is indeed the unique identifier for the individual user, corresponding to their Azure AD (now called Microsoft Entra) GUID. It is unique per user and remains consistent for that user across sessions and services.

Tenant URL: This URL points to the Power BI tenant environment and should be the same for all users within the same tenant, as it reflects the tenant-specific Power BI service endpoint.

Your data is stored in XXXXX: This indicates the geographic region or data center where the tenant’s data is physically stored. This should be consistent for all users within the same tenant because tenant data is hosted in a specific Microsoft datacenter or region based on tenant configuration and compliance requirements.

In summary, elements like Service Version, Tenant URL, and data storage region are generally consistent across users in the same tenant, while Client Version, Activity ID, and App Instance ID may differ due to individual browser environments, session uniqueness, and backend load distribution. The User Object ID is uniquely tied to each user and obviously differs between them.

[v-pagayam-msft]

Hi AMD0791,
Could you please confirm if the issue has been resolved on your end? If a solution has been found, it would be greatly appreciated if you could share your insights with the community. This would be helpful for other members who may encounter similar issues.
Thank you for your understanding and assistance. 

Regards,
Pallavu G.

[v-pagayam-msft]

Hi @AMD0791 ,
I wanted to check in on your situation regarding the issue. Have you resolved it? If you have, please consider marking the reply that helped you as accept as solution or sharing your solution. It would be greatly appreciated by others in the community who may have the same question.

Thank you for being a part of the Microsoft Fabric Community Forum!

[lbendlin]

What's your actual question?  What are you trying to do with that data once you have it?

[AMD0791]

MS tech support has asked for this information from users experiencing an intermittent error.  I'm trying to pre-analyze and see if there's anything meaningful there when I compare the results for different users.  If I understand the data and what patterns are normal, that may guide me on which users to approach to ask for this information.

[lbendlin]

Is your company geographically concentrated or is it multinational/global?  Azure client versions can differ across the globe and are susceptible to timed rollouts.  Don't expect them to be identical always. 

No idea what App ID means if this is not referring to the app that you publish from a workspace.

Activity ID and Request ID are your keys to the log files, together with the UTC timestamps. Those are the things that really matter.

[AMD0791]

Our users are all in the US, but in different locations throughout the country. 

The "App Instance ID"  seems to be a random collection of 5 characters that changes.  It's different in 2 different tabs I have open and if I refresh an existing tab, that value changes.

The "Service version" and the "Client version" are different for me today than a screenshot I took a couple days ago. But they match between multiple tabs.  

Also, on this screen, the "Activity ID" is the same for my old screenshot as it is for me today.  But the screenshots from other users have a different value.

[lbendlin]

There was a recent service version change that is slowly propagating through all the environments.

[AMD0791]

Do you have the link to that chart?  That could be handy in the future!

[v-pagayam-msft]

Hi @AMD0791 
Thank you @lbendlin for the accurate response.

Accessing a history of Power BI service versions is not directly available through a centralized public resource. Power BI offers a version history feature. You may track recent updates and changes using the following method:

• Navigate to your workspace content list.

• Click on the  3 dots(...) next to the semantic model.

• Select "Version history" to view previous versions.

Refer the official document for the detailed understanding.

If this post helps, please give us Kudos and consider Accept it as a solution to help the other members find it more quickly.