Troubleshooting Report Problems
The first step in troubleshooting a report is to identify the symptom and underlying cause for the report issue. Because of the extensible Reporting Services architecture, causes for report issues might stem from a specific component or from an interaction among components. Use the following list to help choose the appropriate troubleshooting topic:
Troubleshooting Techniques
Report design
Report data retrieval
Report processing
Report rendering
Report previewing locally
Publishing or Viewing a Report on a Report Server in Native Mode
Publishing or Viewing a Report on a Report Server in SharePoint Integrated Mode
Reports Exported to a Specific File Format
Report performance
Report History or Snapshots
In This Section
Troubleshooting Techniques for Report Issues
To learn about multiple troubleshooting techniques that you can use to help resolve report issues, see Troubleshooting Techniques for Report Problems and Troubleshooting Tools (Reporting Services).
Report Design
Report design issues occur when you create the report layout in Design view in a report authoring application. To help troubleshoot these issues, see Troubleshooting Reports: Report Design. This topic includes possible cause and resolutions for the following issues:
Why does my text box show only a single value and not repeat for every row?
Why can't I add the total number of pages to my report?
How do I design two tables or a chart and a table to display side-by-side?
To help troubleshoot issues about maps, see Troubleshooting Reports: Map Reports (Report Builder 3.0 and SSRS).
Report Data Retrieval
The first step during report processing is to retrieve the report data for each dataset by running the dataset query. When you preview a report locally, your data source connections and credentials must use sufficient permissions to retrieve the data to your computer. When you run a report on the report server, the data source connections and credentials must use sufficient permissions to retrieve the data on the report server. To help troubleshoot issues about data source connections and retrieving data, see Troubleshooting Reports: Report Data Retrieval. This topic includes possible cause and resolutions for the following issues:
I cannot create a connection to a data source.
Why do I see no data when I run my query in the query designer?
My dataset fields do not appear in the Report Data pane.
Report Processing
After the report data is retrieved, the report processor combines the data and layout information. Each report item property that has an expression is evaluated in the context of the combined data and layout. To help troubleshoot issues about evaluated expressions for report properties, see Troubleshooting Reports: Report Processing. This topic includes possible cause and resolutions for the following issues:
My report definition is not valid.
A text box displays "#Error"; how do I fix it?
Report Rendering
After the report data and layout information is combined, the compiled report is sent to a report renderer. For example, when you preview a report locally, you are using the HTML renderer to view the compiled report. To help troubleshoot issues about report rendering, see Troubleshooting Reports: Report Rendering.
When you export a report, the report server passes the compiled report to the renderer designed to produce the file format you choose. For more information, see Reports Exported to a Specific File Format later in this topic.
This topic includes possible cause and resolutions for the following issues:
Why do I have extra white space, including blank pages, in my report?
How can I view all my report data on one page?
Previewing a Report Locally
When you view a report in local preview, you are viewing a compiled report that has been sent to the HTML renderer. To help troubleshoot issues about local preview, see Troubleshooting Reports: Report Previewing Locally. This topic includes possible cause and resolutions for the following issues:
Why does my report prompt for parameters and not run automatically?
Why do I see a ? on the toolbar for Total Pages?
I get an "index out of bounds" error.
Viewing a Report on a Report Server Configured in Native Mode
When you publish or upload a report to a report server configured in native mode, you might see issues that are specific to the report server. To help troubleshoot these issues, see Troubleshooting Reports: Publishing or Viewing a Report on a Report Server in Native Mode. This topic includes possible cause and resolutions for the following issues:
Why am I being prompted for credentials when I publish a report?
Nothing happens when I toggle items in my published report.
Images and charts do not load when I use Run As and a browser to view my published my report.
Viewing a Report on a Report Server Configured in SharePoint Integrated Mode
When you publish or upload a report to a report server configured in SharePoint integrated mode, you might see issues that are specific to the report server. To help troubleshoot these issues, see Troubleshooting Reports: Publishing or Viewing a Report on a Report Server in SharePoint Integrated Mode. This topic includes possible cause and resolutions for the following issues:
I cannot connect to a report server configured in SharePoint Integrated mode.
My hyperlinks and subreports are not working after I publish reports to a SharePoint site.
I cannot specify a model as a data source.
Exporting a Report to a Specific File Format
In local preview or for published reports viewed with Report Manager or by URL access, you can export a report to a specific file format. To help troubleshoot issues about for these file formats, see Troubleshooting Reports: Reports Exported to a Specific File Format. This topic includes possible cause and resolutions for the following issues:
My exported report has extra blank pages.
I want to remove extra white space at the end of my report.
In Excel, my report hyperlinks work in my table but not my chart.
I cannot export my report to Excel because it has too many rows.
After I export a report, I cannot view it.
Improving Report Performance
When you view a report, you might experience a long wait time before you see the first page. To help determine where the report processing time is being spent, see Troubleshooting Techniques for Report Problems. To help troubleshoot report performance issues, see Troubleshooting Reports: Report Performance. This topic includes possible cause and resolutions for the following issues:
My data takes too long to retrieve.
My report takes too long to process.
My report takes too long to render.
Viewing a History or Snapshot Report
After a report is published, you can create report snapshots or create a report history. To help troubleshoot snapshot and history issues, see Troubleshooting Reports: Report History or Snapshots. This topic includes possible cause and resolutions for the following issue:
- My report displays a UserID that is not mine.
See Also