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Restore Deleted Workspaces

Bring back a Power BI workspace that was deleted, assign it to a new admin and optionally rename it, from the Power BI Explorer in Tenant Admin View.

How it works

When a workspace is deleted in Power BI, Microsoft keeps it for the workspace retention period set in the Fabric admin portal. During that period MetaMiner lists it as deleted, and a Fabric administrator can restore it with Restore workspace. MetaMiner calls the Power BI admin restore API with your Microsoft sign-in, so the restore is recorded under your name.

This restores the workspace and its content as Microsoft kept it. To bring back content from a MetaMiner archive instead, see Restore Content.

Before you begin

  • Your administrator turned on Power BI sign-in, and you signed in when you connected. See Connect to a Server.
  • Your MetaMiner role grants Tenant Admin in the environment. See Permissions Reference.
  • Your Microsoft account holds the Fabric administrator role.
  • Your organization consented to the delegated Power BI permission Tenant.ReadWrite.All. See Delegated User Sign-In.
  • The workspace is still within the retention period. After that, Microsoft deletes it permanently and it no longer appears.

Steps

  1. In the Power BI Explorer, click Tenant Admin View on the toolbar. The client reloads every workspace in the tenant. Deleted workspaces appear in red; the tooltip reads This workspace is marked Deleted in Microsoft. Right-click for restore options.
  2. Right-click the deleted workspace and choose Restore workspace.
  3. In Restore deleted workspace, under Assign workspace to new owner, type at least 3 characters of a person's name and select them in Search Results. This person becomes the workspace admin.
  4. Optional: change New name (optional). Leave the current name to restore under the same name.
  5. Click OK. The client reports Workspace restored. MetaMiner will reflect the new state after the next workspace refresh.

Image of the Restore deleted workspace dialog with a person selected under Assign workspace to new owner and the New name field filled in

../../images/client/pbi-restore-workspace.png

If you run Restore workspace again on the same workspace within a short time, the client asks you to confirm, because Microsoft can take a minute to report the new state.

Verify

  1. Open the Power BI portal and check that the workspace is listed and the new owner has the admin role.
  2. After the next collection, press F5 in MetaMiner. The workspace is no longer shown in red.

Troubleshooting

Restore workspace is not on the menu

The workspace is not marked deleted, or you selected more than one row. Deleted workspaces are visible only in Tenant Admin View when Power BI sign-in is on.

Tenant Admin View is not on the toolbar

Power BI sign-in is off for this connection, or your role lacks Tenant Admin. See Tenant Admin View.

Restore failed

Your Microsoft account is not a Fabric administrator, the tenant has not consented to Tenant.ReadWrite.All, the retention period has ended, or the new name is already taken. The error window shows the message from Microsoft.

The workspace still shows as deleted after a successful restore

MetaMiner shows the collected state. It changes after the next workspace collection; then press F5.

Next steps