Forum Discussion
Advocate IVMultiple users getting AppMetadataInaccessible / TokenExpired error page with grey owl
Starting last week, users have started seeing random errors accessing the Power BI service.
Some users have been seeing a white pop-up box with thsi message
"Your Power BI session Expired . The current Power BI session can no longer be used to communicate with the Power BI service because of a service modification. You must close and re-open your browser to start a new session"
When I got this message, I was able to close the pop-up and then refresh the page to get to Power BI. I sometimes got that pop-up multiple times before Power BI would load. When it did load, I noticed my workspace list was missing a lot of workspaces. I'd click the refresh a few times and I'd eventually get all my workspaces. Other users have had a similar experience.
During the same timeframe, other users have been periodically seeing an error page I call the "grey owl error". The error on this page is almost always "You don't have access to this page" and the Technical Details would read that "Power BI was unable to read the application metatdata" and instruct the user to try again later. This error is a separate web page with its own URL. Within the URL are parameters that indicate an error code of 403 and a error type of "TokenExpired". We have not figured out what actually fixes this error -- it just seems to go away.
I really think these errors are related. THe other morning I was seeing the "Session expired" popup at the same time that other users were getting the grey owl page. It just seems really unlikely that we suddenly have a bunch of users getting the same errors at the same time because their tokens all expired at the same time -- seriously it has been multiple users in multiple locations in the same hour. And even if they did all have expired tokens, Power BI should be handling this more elegantly by renewing the token.
Has anyone else seen this or have any ideas what to research?
Hi AMD0791,
Please consider reaching out to Microsoft Support. You can provide them with all the troubleshooting steps you've already taken, which will help them understand the issue better and provide a resolution. They might be able to identify something specific about your issue or provide a solution that isn't immediately obvious.
Below is the link to create Microsoft Support ticket:
How to create a Fabric and Power BI Support ticket - Power BI | Microsoft LearnIf this helps, please consider marking it 'Accept as Solution' so others with similar queries may find it more easily. If not, please share the details.
Thank you.
11 Replies
- lbendlin
Super User
We see this all the time over the last couple days. Nobody at Microsoft seems to have an opinion on this. I think the "because of a service modification" part is the clue. Service is very shaky and slow over the last couple days, as if some big changes are slowly propagating through.
Tough to raise as a ticket though since it is not reliably reproducible.
AMD0791Adding to the pile -- just had a PBI Desktop user report random errors being able refresh several of their files with connections to a PowerBI Dataset. It worked fine earlier, mid-day they were getting errors that looked like the Authentication was missing, an hour later it works fine.
v-ssriganeshCommunity Support
Hi AMD0791,
Thank you for reaching out to the Microsoft Fabric Community Forum and providing detailed observations on this issue. The errors you are encountering "AppMetadataInaccessible," "TokenExpired," session expiration pop-ups, and the Grey Owl error (403), suggest potential authentication token issues within Power BI. This appears to be a temporary glitch. Here are some troubleshooting steps that may help resolve your issue:
- Firstly, clear your browser's cache and cookies, then restart your browser. If using incognito or private mode resolves the issue, it is likely related to the cache. Should the issue persist in one browser but not another, it may be browser specific.
- If users encounter intermittent authentication issues in Power BI Desktop, ensure they are signed in with the correct credentials, verify that their Power BI Dataset permissions are intact, and have them re-authenticate by signing out and signing back in to Power BI Desktop.
- Have there been any recent updates to your organization's security policies, firewall, or proxy settings? Some organizations implement conditional access policies that could affect token renewal.
If the problem persists, please consider raising a Microsoft support ticket. You can create a Microsoft support ticket using the link below:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/support/create-support-ticketIf this helps, kindly Accept it as a solution and give a "Kudos" so other members can find it more easily.
Thank you.- AMD0791
Thank you for your response.
The most recent user experiencing issues has tried all the suggestions. This user actually had this issue several days ago, it seemed to resolve by clearing his cache, and then it came back 3 days later and none of the tricks seem to work. He's tried closing out the browser, clearing the cache, tried other browsers, tried incognito mode, even rebooting and was still getting the grew owl error. I will find out tomorrow if it magically fixed itself over the weekend.
Can you give me any insight on what our security team can look for to narrow down the cause? Is there a specific endpoint or port that should be checked?
Is the "Token Expired" error related to not being able to get the token back from the service, or is it an inability to read a token stored on the local machine?
As a feedback item -- this "Grey owl" page error is kinda awful from a user experience perspective. Many end users will just keep hitting the browser refresh button and never notice that the URL is no longer the page they wanted to reach. Some will figure out that the "Back" button will solve their problem and allow them to access the page. If users need to re-authenticate for some reason, then send them to the authentication flow instead of this error page.
- v-ssriganesh
Hi AMD0791,
Please consider reaching out to Microsoft Support. You can provide them with all the troubleshooting steps you've already taken, which will help them understand the issue better and provide a resolution. They might be able to identify something specific about your issue or provide a solution that isn't immediately obvious.
Below is the link to create Microsoft Support ticket:
How to create a Fabric and Power BI Support ticket - Power BI | Microsoft LearnIf this helps, please consider marking it 'Accept as Solution' so others with similar queries may find it more easily. If not, please share the details.
Thank you.
We are having the same issue in our organization that started maybe a couple of weeks ago. Roughly 2k users accessing an app and seeing swaths of those users run into this same error message. I can't seem to find a solve for it anywhere. Hoping enough people can raise this issue with Microsoft to have them prioirtize the issue.
Users are also getting a "PowerBI was unable to read the application metadata due to an internal server error. Please check the Power BI service status in the below support page and try again later."
Thank you for posting.I was getting this error, and I liaised with a network engineer colleague, who guided me on a manual fix.
On PowerShell, run the commands below to get the IP address of your Power BI
1. nslookup api.powerbi.com
2. tracert api.powerbi.com
This will get you the Power BI api
xx.xx.xxx.xx api.powerbi.com
Then, I added the IP address and api.powerbi.com (i.e. xx.xx.xxx.xx api.powerbi.com) to the host file on my local computer C:Windows\System32\drivers\etc. This is a temporal fix because If Microsoft change their IP address , then you will need to update, since there is no fixed IP address for api.power bi.com. Microsoft suggest that adding the IP ranges to your company firewall . The Microsoft Azure Data centre IP ranges are released on a weekly basis Up-to-date Azure Public API to get Azure IP ranges in all Azure Clouds? - Microsoft Q&A
