Analytics dashboard sharing fails with insufficient privileges error for custom report folders

CRM Salesforce
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1

We’re experiencing a recurring issue where users receive ‘insufficient privileges’ errors when trying to access shared analytics dashboards in Lightning Reports. The problem affects multiple stakeholder groups who need regular access to these reports for business decisions.

The dashboards are stored in shared folders with ‘View’ access granted to specific public groups. Users are members of these groups and have the ‘View Reports’ permission enabled in their profiles. However, when they navigate to the dashboard, they get blocked with the insufficient privileges message.

I’ve verified folder-level sharing settings multiple times and the permissions appear correct. The dashboard components pull data from reports in the same folder structure. Some users can access certain dashboards but not others, even though the sharing configuration looks identical.

Has anyone encountered similar behavior with dashboard sharing in Summer '24? We need to resolve this quickly as it’s blocking our quarterly business reviews.

2

The issue you’re experiencing stems from three interconnected permission layers that must all align for successful dashboard access.

First, address folder-level sharing comprehensively. Navigate to the dashboard folder and verify sharing settings, but more importantly, audit every single report folder that contains source reports for your dashboards. In Lightning Reports, dashboards inherit the most restrictive permissions from any component report. If even one report sits in a folder with limited sharing, the entire dashboard becomes inaccessible to users lacking that specific permission. Use Setup > Sharing Settings > Report and Dashboard Folders to create a consistent sharing model. I recommend consolidating all related reports into folder hierarchies that share the same access groups.

Second, review dashboard and report permissions at the object level. Users need both ‘View Reports in Public Folders’ and ‘Run Reports’ permissions enabled in their profile or permission sets. Additionally, check the ‘View Dashboards in Public Folders’ permission. These are separate from folder sharing and must be explicitly granted. For Summer '24, Salesforce tightened security around dynamic dashboards, so users viewing dashboards with running user context need the ‘View My Team’s Dashboards’ or ‘View All Data’ permission depending on the data scope.

Third, conduct a thorough profile and permission set review. Create a permission set specifically for dashboard consumers that includes: Run Reports, View Reports in Public Folders, View Dashboards in Public Folders, and field-level read access to all fields used in dashboard filters and report columns. Assign this permission set to your stakeholder groups. This approach provides cleaner permission management than modifying profiles directly.

For your immediate issue, I suggest this diagnostic sequence: Select one problematic dashboard, identify all source reports, verify each report’s folder sharing includes your user groups, confirm users have the core report/dashboard permissions in their profile, check for any field-level security restrictions on fields used in filters or columns, and test with a single user who has ‘View All Data’ temporarily enabled. If that user can access the dashboard, you’ve confirmed it’s a permission configuration issue rather than a platform bug.

One often-overlooked aspect: if your dashboards use cross-object filters or report on objects with organization-wide defaults set to Private, users need explicit sharing rules or role hierarchy access to the underlying records. The dashboard won’t display data they couldn’t see in a regular report.

Implement these changes systematically, starting with folder consolidation, then permission set deployment, and finally field-level security validation. This layered approach should resolve your access issues across all stakeholder groups.

3

Had this exact scenario last month. The problem was mixed visibility settings across report folders. Some reports were in ‘Public Read Only’ folders while others were in ‘Shared’ folders with specific group access. When you combine them in a dashboard, Salesforce applies the most restrictive permission model, which caused the insufficient privileges error for users who only had access to some folders.

4

Also worth checking the ‘View All Data’ and ‘View All Reports’ permissions. If your dashboards include reports with record-level security, users might need additional permissions beyond basic folder access. We had a similar issue where the dashboard appeared in the list but threw errors on load because users lacked permissions to view certain record types referenced in the underlying queries.

Another thing - verify that the public groups haven’t changed membership. Sometimes group hierarchy updates don’t propagate immediately to sharing rules. Try removing and re-adding a test user to the public group, then have them log out and back in.

5

Don’t forget about permission sets. If users have permission sets that restrict report access, those can override the folder sharing permissions. I recommend creating a dedicated permission set for dashboard viewers that explicitly grants ‘Run Reports’ and ‘View Reports’ capabilities. This approach gives you more granular control than relying solely on profiles and folder sharing.

Also check if any of the dashboard filters reference fields that users don’t have field-level security access to. That’s a subtle issue that can cause privilege errors even when folder permissions are correct.