Power BI Desktop “Web: Request Failed” when refreshing SharePoint Excel queries (_api/contextinfo)

[danielbranda0]

Summary:
Power BI Desktop suddenly stopped refreshing SharePoint Excel queries on one specific computer, even though everything works perfectly on another machine using the same account and Power BI version. The issue only occurs when refreshing all queries together.

Suddenly, my Power BI Desktop (version 2.148.1477.0 64-bit) stopped refreshing queries. It now shows the following error message:

Web: Request failed:
https://mysite.sharepoint.com/sites/mysite/XXXXX/YYYY/ZZZZ/AAAA/BBBB_xlsx/_api/contextinfo

This happens only with Excel (.xlsx) files connected via SharePoint.
I can still refresh these same SharePoint Excel queries on another machine and also directly through the web interface.
It’s possible to refresh each query individually, but when I try to refresh all queries at once, the error reappears.

Everything was working perfectly until last week. Interestingly, on another computer running the exact same Power BI version, all queries refresh normally. Both machines are signed in with the same Microsoft account, using identical credentials and authentication methods. When I open the query in Power Query, I get the same error message:

Details: DataSourceKind=Web DataSourcePath=https://mysite.sharepoint.com/sites/mysite/XXXXX/YYYY/ZZZZ/AAAA/BBBB_xlsx/_api/contextinfo

The error always appears as soon as Power Query opens, but if I manually refresh the preview inside Power Query, the data loads without any problem.

I’ve already tried the following without success:

• Reinstalled and tested different versions of Power BI Desktop

• Formatted the computer entirely and performed a clean installation

• Confirmed that network access and SharePoint permissions are identical

• Verified that the same credentials work perfectly on another PC

On the other machine (which has never had this issue), Power BI still updates all queries normally with no errors.

Could someone please help me?

[v-tejrama]

Hi @danielbranda0 ,

Thanks for sharing such a detailed description of what you’ve been seeing. From what you described, it sounds like this issue is most likely related to how Power BI Desktop handles multiple SharePoint connections during a full refresh, rather than anything wrong with your permissions or the files themselves. The fact that everything works fine on another computer and also when refreshing queries one by one points to something local on the affected machine, most likely related to authentication caching, network handling, or parallel query execution.

The first thing I recommend is turning off parallel loading to see if the problem clears up. You can do this by going to File - Options and settings - Options - Data Load and unchecking Parallel loading of tables. Then try running Refresh All again. This setting often helps when multiple queries are trying to connect to SharePoint at the same time and one of them gets blocked or throttled.

If that doesn’t help, clear the stored credentials for the SharePoint connection. You can do this under File - Options and settings - Data source settings, choose the SharePoint site, and clear permissions. Then sign out of Power BI Desktop, restart it, and sign back in with your organizational account before reconnecting to the data source. This ensures that any stale token or cached connection is removed and that a new authentication flow is used.

It’s also worth checking that the Edge WebView2 runtime on the problem machine is up to date, since Power BI uses that for modern authentication. You can verify this in your Windows Apps list or by visiting Microsoft’s WebView2 download page. In some cases, reinstalling or updating that component resolves authentication and web request errors like the one you’re seeing.

If you want to experiment further, you can also try specifying the API version directly in your query as another community member mentioned, using something like SharePoint.Contents. This can help when the connector is struggling to automatically negotiate the correct API version with SharePoint.

If the refresh succeeds after any of these steps, you can keep that configuration going forward. If not, please capture the detailed error message from the Power BI trace logs or from the refresh dialog and share it here, since that will show exactly what response is coming back from SharePoint. That will make it easier to confirm whether this is a throttling or authentication timing issue.

Let me know how it goes after testing those changes.

Best Regards,
Tejaswi.
Community Support

[v-tejrama]

Hi @danielbranda0 ,

I wanted to follow up and see if you had a chance to review the information shared. If you have any further questions or need additional assistance, feel free to reach out.

Thank you.

[v-tejrama]

Hi @danielbranda0 ,

I wanted to check if you had the opportunity to review the information provided. Please feel free to contact us if you have any further questions.

Thank you.

[xifeng_L · Accepted solution]

Hi @danielbranda0 

This may be a problem with the network or API version. You can try adding the API version to the connection function in SharePoint, for example:

SharePoint.Contents(SharePointSiteUrl,[ApiVersion="Auto"]) // Can try auto mode, if not useful pls use below version.

SharePoint.Contents(SharePointSiteUrl,[ApiVersion="14"])  // English Site

SharePoint.Contents(SharePointSiteUrl,[ApiVersion="15"])  // Not English Site

Did I answer your question? If yes, pls mark my post as a solution and appreciate your Kudos !

Thank you~