Forum Discussion
Helper IDax Studio is constantly disconnecting
Super UserHi danielpitz,
I hope you are doing well today ☺️❤️
So there is too many reasons for this caused issue:
First One: (most common)
If you are working locally against Power BI Desktop the embedded instance will shut down after a few minutes of inactivity (DAX Studio then loses its connection and you have to reconnect or refresh metadata)
To Fix this you need to:
Go to File > Options > Advanced
Check Keep connection alive
- Set an interval like 120–240 seconds
This prevents the idle timeout from kicking in
- For remote servers (Azure Analysis Services (AAS), Power BI Premium XMLA endpoints) a keep alive also guards against network timeouts (proxies or load balancers or VPNs)
Second Reason: Connection timeout settings is too short
DAX Studio ships with default timeouts that might be too aggressive for slow models or networks so to fix this and prevent it from giving up:
File > Options > Advanced
- Increase Server timeout (from default 600 to 1800 seconds or even 0 for unlimited)
Increase Connection timeout (like a 60 seconds)
Third Reason: Aggressive metadata refreshes
You said that you are spending time refreshing metadata So If metadata is set to refresh automatically on every model change a schema change can sometimes trigger a disconnect or reconnect cycle and to Fix this you need to
- Switch metadata to manual refresh
Final Reason: Network instability (remote connections)
If you connect to a remote XMLA endpoint anything that resets the TCP connection (VPN drop or Wi‑Fi flicker or proxy timeouts) will break DAX Studio
Run a long EVALUATE {1} query in a loop using a separate tool (or SSMS) to see if disconnects happen there too
If your company uses a proxy ensure localhost and the XMLA endpoint are excluded
Last Tip:
Open the same model in SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) or Tabular Editor and see if you experience similar disconnects If yes the issue is on the server or Desktop side (or network)
If no its a DAX Studio specific setting or bug in this case capture the log and you can share it us and see if we can solve this.
danielpitzI do not see Keep connection alive, Server timeout or Connection Timeout under File >> Options >> Advanced
Hi danielpitz ,
The options such as Keep connection alive, Server timeout, and Connection timeout are not Power BI Desktop configuration settings and may vary depending on the external tool version or implementation. Power BI Desktop supports external tools through the External Tools integration, where connection information is passed to the tool. Any additional configuration options or connection behavior are managed within the external tool itself.
From the Power BI side, please ensure you are using the latest available version of Power BI Desktop. Also, make sure Power BI Desktop is fully loaded with the model active before launching the external tool, preferably through the External Tools ribbon.
You can also test with another Power BI file/model to determine whether the behavior is specific to a particular dataset.
If the issue continues, reviewing the DAX Studio version and collecting logs during the disconnect may help further isolate the behavior from the external tool perspective.
Documentation:
Power BI Desktop latest updates and support:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/fundamentals/desktop-latest-updateExternal tools in Power BI Desktop:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/transform-model/desktop-external-tools
- danielpitz
I do not see Keep connection alive, Server timeout or Connection Timeout under File >> Options >> Advanced
Metadata is set to Manual Refresh
I'll have to look into this
If your company uses a proxy ensure localhost and the XMLA endpoint are excluded