Unable to Start Power BI Desktop (We weren't able to connect to the model)

[calm1kov]

Hi,

I'm trying to launch Power BI desktop app on my laptop without success.

The error pop-up says:

Unable to Start Power BI Desktop 

We weren't able to connect to the model

Any help appreciated.

[Anonymous]

Hi guys, that still does not work for me i tried instal and unistal different versions 32 and 64, old that worked before and the last update August 2018. I still can open any type of file. Any advice please

[Evogelpohl]

 Same issue.  Temp fix is to turn off your Windows Defender Firewall.  If my FW is off, PowerBi works fine.  If it turn it back on, I get this error.  I can't find the FW rule to set.

[rahuljhaver]

Hi,

Is there any fix for this problem? 

Any help appreciated.

Thank you.

[LexSmeets]

I run into the same problem. I use the x86 version of Power BI Desktop for Reporting Servioce (nov 2017). We tried to install it on 3 different systems and they give all the same result. The systems are all x86 Windows 7 systems. The regular versuion of Power BI Dekstop funtions without any problems. The x64 installs work with no problems.

A closer analisys gives that the SSAS craches at startup.

[MrCairo]

Checked the hosts file.  local host was redirected to another IP address.
added a # at the start of that line.

Problem solved

Spent a week trying to resolve this for one of our users.

[JdL42]

Hi. Thank's for this advice but in this case I'm a noob. What do you mean when you talk about the host file. I don't understand what I'm suppose to do.

[adaml]

The hosts file is where tcp/ip looks first to translate a named address to an IP address.

It lives in c:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc  - there you will find a file called hosts - it has no suffix.

You can open it with notepad. Check that localhost is not being redirected it should be commented out as below

...

# localhost name resolution is handled within DNS itself.
# 127.0.0.1 localhost
# ::1 localhost

...

When you save it from notepad - make sure it doesn't add a .txt suffix.

[JdL42]

Hi. Thank's a lot for this. I've found the host files but seems to be correct, no ?

# Copyright (c) 1993-2009 Microsoft Corp.
#
# This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows.
#
# This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each
# entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should
# be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name.
# The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one
# space.
#
# Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual
# lines or following the machine name denoted by a '#' symbol.
#
# For example:
#
#      102.54.94.97     rhino.acme.com          # source server
#       38.25.63.10     x.acme.com              # x client host

# localhost name resolution is handled within DNS itself.
# 127.0.0.1       localhost
# ::1             localhost

[adaml]

Yes that looks OK - I think the message reflects some sort of connectivity problem so next I would check that localhost resolves to your PC. In a command prompt window

ping localhost  > should reply from ::1:

tracert localhost > should return a single line  1  <1ms  <1ms  <1ms  yourpcname.yourdomain.etc [::1:]

ipconfig /flushdns  might help 

Sorry, that's all I can offer.

[JdL42]

Ok thank's so much. I've done all actions but no solution. I'm so angry about that !

[kimani]

This has been fixed in the August release of Power BI Desktop. Please install it and let us know if you run into any issues. https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/power-bi-desktop-august-2017-feature-summary/

[ChristianC]

Great, It works now with the August update. Thank you for that really much appreciated. 

[koenverbeeck]

The August update works for me. Although I did change my locale recently because SQL Server and SSDT were having some issues as well.

[OpachequinhO]

Hi

I have the same problem as well.  My power BI Desktop was working fine (with June 2017 version).  The error is "Unable to Start Power BI Desktop (We weren't able to connect to the model)", and I have tried different ways including also uninstalling and installing. Could you please provide a working solution for this?

And also, Do you know where I can download the June 2017 version for 32 bits?

Thanks!!!

[Ktt]

The same problem with this new July update. Tried uninstalling and installing July's version again. Nothing. Could not open old files and could not even start the program. Rolled back to June version and everything works fine.

[Anonymous]

I'm suffering from this issue too, I rolled back to the june version, but am worried that that won't work for long. My PC at work has no issue, but my PC at home does 😞

[mindorf]

I have the same issue with the july 2017 version.

Does anybody have a download link for the june 2017 version?

[josephweissman]

It didn't work for me but here is a site that posted them:

https://zenatti.net/2017/07/04/power-bi-previous-versions/

[mindorf]

Rolling back to june 2017 version provided at https://zenatti.net/2017/07/04/power-bi-previous-versions/ worked for me.

[OpachequinhO]

Do you know where I can find June 2017 version for 32 bits?