This is best Fabric, Power BI, SQL and AI community event. How do we know? The last event sold out! Save €200 with code FABCMTY200.
Register nowJuly 28 - August 9 | Final Round of the Power BI Dataviz World Championships. This is your chance. Learn more
Hi Guys,
I am trying to connect to an SQL Server from PowerBI and I keep getting this error message.
Details: "Microsoft SQL: Connection Timeout Expired. The timeout period elapsed while attempting to consume the pre-login handshake acknowledgement. This could be because the pre-login handshake failed or the server was unable to respond back in time. The duration spent while attempting to connect to this server was - [Pre-Login] initialization=18032; handshake=14220; "
I can connect to the same server from SSMS on the same machine and from excel too but I cant seems to connect from PowerBI. Also I can connect to other server from PowerBI.
I look forward to your response.
I'm running into the same issue as well. I can ping the sql server, and have tried using the IP as well as opposed to the host name. Message:
Details: "Microsoft SQL: Connection Timeout Expired. The timeout period elapsed while attempting to consume the pre-login handshake acknowledgement. This could be because the pre-login handshake failed or the server was unable to respond back in time. The duration spent while attempting to connect to this server was - [Pre-Login] initialization=18100; handshake=14274; "
I can also do a remote session with the server and not have any issues. Tobz were you able to resolve your issue?
Hi @Anonymous,
We are able to specify a command timeout value (in minutes) when connecting to SQL Server database after the March release of Power BI Desktop. Please set the value of "Command timeout in minutes" to a higher value and check if you can connect to SQL Server successfully? Or you can write a custom SQL statement in “SQL statement” and check if the connection is fine.
In addition, please try IP address instead of putting server name there, add check if it fix the issue. If you have any issue, please let me know.
Best Regards,
Angelia
Join us in Barcelona for FabCon and SQLCon, the Fabric, Power BI, SQL, and AI community event. Save €200 with code FABCMTY200.
If you love stickers, then you will definitely want to check out our community sticker challenge, Barcelona edition!
Check out the July 2026 Power BI update to learn about new features.
| User | Count |
|---|---|
| 25 | |
| 23 | |
| 19 | |
| 17 | |
| 14 |
| User | Count |
|---|---|
| 25 | |
| 23 | |
| 20 | |
| 20 | |
| 19 |