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mjoseph111's avatar
mjoseph111
Helper II
6 months ago
Solved

Linked Server Authentication Fails

I’m running into an issue where SQL Server linked server queries no longer authenticate in the latest version of Power BI Desktop.   My questions: Is this a known issue with the latest Power BI ...
  • mjoseph111's avatar
    mjoseph111
    6 months ago

    Thank you everyone for your help. I tried all the above solutions, but the problem persisted.
    To resolve the issue, I moved all direct SQL connections out of Power BI Desktop and rebuilt them in Power BI Dataflows. so dashboards no longer depend on Power BI Desktop for data access. I then updated each dashboard to use the Dataflow instead of connecting directly to SQL.

MohitsinghMS's avatar
MohitsinghMS
Resolver II
6 months ago

Recent Power BI versions default the SQL connection setting Encrypt to True (or Strict). If your SQL Server (or the Linked Server behind it) uses a self-signed certificate, authentication will fail silently or with a generic credential error.

  • Fix: In Power BI Desktop, go to File > Options and settings > Data source settings.

  • Select your SQL Server data source > Edit Permissions.

  • Uncheck "Encrypt connections" (or ensure the optional "Enable SQL Server Failover support" is unchecked if not needed, as it triggers stricter encryption checks).

  • Alternative: When connecting, look for the "Trust Server Certificate" option and ensure it is checked.