Why a viewer sees "Restricted view", blank tiles, or "Access denied"

Overview

Sometimes a dashboard that looks complete to its author shows a Restricted view banner, blank tiles, or an Access denied for grant message to a colleague. These are permission behaviours, not data problems, and each has a specific fix.

In this article, we'll be covering what each message means, why it appears for some people and not others, and how to resolve it.

Understand "Restricted view" and blank tiles

Every tile on a dashboard is built either from a topic (one of the curated datasets such as Accounts, Billing, or Tickets) or from custom logic: a hand-written SQL query, or a field the author added only inside their own report.

• Tiles built from topics are visible to everyone who has access to the dashboard.
• Tiles built from custom logic run only for the author. Other people see the tile blank, with a Restricted view notice.

When editing, the author sees a yellow warning marker on tiles that will be restricted for viewers.

Fix it

1. Open the affected tile in the workbook.
2. Rebuild it using only fields offered by the topic. Remove custom SQL and report-only fields.
3. Publish the dashboard again.

If the topic doesn't have a field you need, ask gaiia to add it to the topic for everyone: see our support team. Once the field is part of the topic, the tile works for all viewers.

Alternative: share with AccessBoost

AccessBoost lets the owner of a dashboard share it so that viewers see every tile, including restricted ones, using the owner's data permissions instead of their own. It's a per-share setting: in the Share... dialog, turn on AccessBoost for the people or groups who need the full view.

AccessBoost grants viewers the owner's data access for that dashboard, including report categories they don't otherwise have. Use it only for dashboards whose content is appropriate for everyone you share with.

Rebuilding the tile on shared topics remains the better fix when the dashboard will be shared widely, because it keeps each viewer's own permissions in force.

Duplicating a dashboard also copies its report-only fields, so a duplicate inherits the same restriction. Fix the source dashboard first, then duplicate.

Understand "Access denied for grant"

This message means the person doesn't have permission for the report category the tile draws from (for example billing or workforce). The report itself opens because it was shared with them; the data behind it is blocked by their gaiia permissions.

Fix it

1. Note the category named in the message.
2. Contact support@gaiia.com and ask for that Analytics category to be granted to the person. Categories are granted per person by gaiia.
3. Have the person reload the report.

If the person only needs this one dashboard, the owner can instead share it with AccessBoost, which lifts the category restriction for that dashboard alone.

Check before contacting support

• Does the person see the whole dashboard blank, or only some tiles? Whole dashboard points to sharing; some tiles point to restricted tiles or a missing category.
• Does the author see the same thing? If the author sees data and the viewer doesn't, it's one of the two cases above.
• Has the dashboard been published since the last change?

If it's still unclear, send support@gaiia.com the report name, who is affected, and the exact message shown.