DataSource.Error: Web.Contents failed to get contents

[Thomasino]

Hi, my PowerBI reports which access data via API v2.0 from Sharepoint Online lists suddenly stopped working on about the 3rd April 2023. I have logged support tickets with the Microsoft Sharepoint and PowerBI teams but no resolution so far.

I receive this error when refreshing the data source:

DataSource.Error: Web.Contents failed to get contents from 'https://mydomain.sharepoint.com/_api/v2.0/sites/mydomain.sharepoint.com://:/lists(guid'f3a629d8-47b1-4aa4-9ca3-325242a6a4a8')/items?$expand=fields&$stop=200' (404): Not Found
Details:
DataSourceKind=SharePoint
DataSourcePath=https://mydomain.sharepoint.com/
Url=https://mydomain.sharepoint.com/_api/v2.0/sites/mydomain.sharepoint.com://:/lists(guid'f3a629d8-47b1-4aa4-9ca3-325242a6a4a8')/items?$expand=fields&$stop=200

If you copy the url to a browser you get a similar error,

{"error":{"code":"itemNotFound","message":"The provided path does not exist, or does not represent a site"}}

However, notice the "://:" highlighted in the url.

If these characters are removed from the url and copied to a browser no error is received and the expected list data is shown in the browser.

The syntax for the query is:

let
Source = SharePoint.Tables("https://mydomain.sharepoint.com", [Implementation="2.0", ViewMode="All"]),
#"f3a629d8-47b1-4aa4-9ca3-325242a6a4a8" = Source{[Id="f3a629d8-47b1-4aa4-9ca3-325242a6a4a8"]}[Items]
in
#"f3a629d8-47b1-4aa4-9ca3-325242a6a4a8"

The item with the id above does exist in the query "= SharePoint.Tables("https://mydomain.sharepoint.com", [Implementation="2.0", ViewMode="All"])" so the list does exist and has not been deleted.

I have created a new PowerBI report and get the same error when trying to create a new connection to the same sharepoint online list.

This problem is only affecting one of the sharepoint sites in the domain and occurs on all lists that have lookup columns. Lists that do not have lookups do not give errors which may suggest it has to do with how these tables get referenced.

Has anyone else had a similar problem or have any suggestions?

Thank you.

[sid_loki]

I am facing the exact same issue in Dec 2023. Sad that there is no resolution found, if it's to do with April 2023 version.

 Error Message while accessing a perticular Sharepoint List (From both PBI Desktop and Server): 

DataSource.Error: Web.Contents failed to get contents from 'https://domain.sharepoint.com/sites/sitename/api/Web/Lists(guid'1b2a6011-7fdb-401f-99ad-f1e9018aa4db...' (500): Internal Server Error

Note: The report is all good (and was untouched from lst one month) with the exact same sharepoint list - Is also, getting refreshed successfully all these days till it all of sudden gave above error and failing to refresh. 

Any help from PBI team, or community is very well appreciated. 

[doingmeheadin]

Do you have a special charicter in the file name? Looks like you might have an &? I had a file with a % in the title and was gettign the same error, removing the % solved the issue. 

[rdantas]

Thanks for the help. I was having the same error. It was just a special character

[Eduardo_Suela]

Hi Than 

Thanks for your anwser. keep contributing.

Good point, but look at it.

The query has two lines and no special chars.

There is no file name, only sharepoint website (with generic name in here) and id of a sahrepoint list.

The special characters that you say are in the error message. Maybe the engine is generating that.

So it doesn't help a lot.

[Eduardo_Suela]

I copied the query in excel.

This happens exactly when you read the same query in excel.

There must be something common in Power Query

If it is an update problem how to make it work in excel?

[alexbillkent]

This is how I overcame it in the end. The March 2023 desktop version allowed me to do Implementation 2.0, but the April 2023 version did not. Implementation 1.0 worked for both versions.

I ended up doing Implementation 1.0 and changed all the column names to replicate those referenced in all measures. I then republished the app to Power BI service to replace the datasource. 

After some review as a team we thought that possibly the issue is with implementation 2.0 of sharepoint lists that have been copied from another sharepoint list. This was possibly confusing the Navigation step in identifying the list ID despite the list ID being exactly the same as it always had been. 

[TLS_Nick]

I am having the same problem with v2 of the SharePoint List data source. Had to change a bunch of queries back to V1.

[alexbillkent]

Hi Thomasino, this is the exact same problem I am experiencing almost down to the letter. I had Power BI desktop reinstalled a couple of weeks ago. The only difference with mine is that the SharePoint list I cannot connect to doesn't have lookup columns. I can connect to other lists on the same SharePoint site. However, I cannot connect to this particular list along with another list, which is a replica of the same list, but with formatted choice columns and some additional text and number columns. 

The Power BI server version of the same app is also not refreshing the datasource and calling a similiar DataSource.Error / Web.Contents error. It refreshed successfully back in March 2023. 

I am hoping if I reinstall the March Power BI desktop version and republish the app to Power BI server everything will work.

[Thomasino]

Removing the April release of powerbi and installing the March release resolved this issue so it seems that there is a bug with the April release.