PDF download occurs before full data rendering

Looker Q&A Looker Studio
1

Hello everyone,

We’ve noticed a recurring issue when exporting dashboards to PDF in Looker Studio. When users click “Download report (PDF)”, the download starts immediately — before all charts and tables have finished rendering their data.

As a result, the exported PDF often shows only the skeleton of the dashboard (layout without data), even though all components finish loading a few seconds later on screen.

This behavior was reported by multiple users on Friday, October 3rd, 2025, and seems to occur more frequently in reports that:

  • Contain multiple data sources (e.g., BigQuery, Sheets, etc.);

  • Have complex visuals or slower queries;

  • Require filters or controls that trigger new data loads.

Steps to reproduce:

  1. Open a dashboard with multiple charts or filters.

  2. Click Share → Download report → PDF right after the page loads.

  3. Wait for the download to complete.

  4. Open the PDF — only the frame/layout appears, but not the chart data.

Expected behavior:
The PDF export should wait until all visual components have finished rendering before generating the file.

Actual behavior:
The PDF is generated immediately, without waiting for full data rendering.

Workarounds tested:

  • Waiting 5–10 seconds before clicking download → sometimes helps, but not always.

  • Using Print → Save as PDF → works more reliably.

  • Scheduling the report delivery by email → also produces a correct PDF.

Request:
Could the Looker Studio team confirm whether the PDF export currently waits for the dashboard rendering event to complete?
If not, could a short “render delay” or “wait until data loads” option be implemented before starting the PDF generation?

Thanks in advance for your help and for the great product — this improvement would really help ensure consistent PDF exports for data-heavy reports.

— Matheus

2

Hello everyone,

I’m facing the same problem,

to improve the visual appearance of the report I created, I’m using the “Templated Record” community component. With its flexibility, I can create custom HTML code and insert the necessary variables.

However, when trying to generate the PDF of the report, all elements that use this component are not rendered in the document. This has been happening since the middle of last month, and for a short period at the end of October it started working again, but the problem returned and continues to this day. I saw in the Looker update documentation that modifications were made precisely to the way PDFs are generated. I believe that as a side effect of these updates, the rendering of heavier elements is not being done in time for PDF generation. I request that the Looker Studio team analyze this problem, as it is fundamental for us to continue using Looker to generate PDFs correctly. Thank you!

Danyel Carvalho.