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WettowelReactor
New Member

can't connect to SQL without admin rights?

I am trying to connect to a SQL Server Database source from Power BI desktop but I keep getting 

 

Unable to Connect

We encountered an error while trying to connect.

Details: ""

 

If I launch Power BI desktop with admin privileges it connects fine. If I connect to the database from an Excel query, SQLCMD, or any other tool without Admin privileges it connects fine. Only Power BI desktop is exhibiting this problem. Anyone have a clue why this is happening?

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

I had recently done a prompted upgrade and my intution is that this upgrade improperly set a permission somewhere on the install files. I uninstalled power BI and did a fresh install and now sql DB access is working fine. Likely there is a bug in how the porgram is updating vs. a clean install.

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7 REPLIES 7
pqian
Microsoft Employee
Microsoft Employee

@WettowelReactor Where are you getting the error dialog? Can you take a screenshot?

I choose get data then SQL Server Database

 Untitled3.png

 

Enter the database name (Entering a databse name makes no difference)

Untitled.png

 

Short pause and then this.

Untitled2.png

 

Deleting the datasource from "options" -> "Data source settings" will repompt for credentials but will not change the error. entering normal domain credentials or admin credentials when Power BI was not launched with Admin rights will not change the error.

Wow...the Details: "" really doesn't help. Maybe the trace will tell us something

 

Goto File->Options->Diagnostic and tick "Enable tracing", repeat the process again.

 

Look for files named Microsoft.Mashup.Container.* in the trace folder and see if anything helps? (or post them here)

 

Yes the error mesage is unhelpful. Here is the end of the trace after attempting again with one retry.

 

Here is the trace: http://pastebin.com/a8WpqrQS

 

I had recently done a prompted upgrade and my intution is that this upgrade improperly set a permission somewhere on the install files. I uninstalled power BI and did a fresh install and now sql DB access is working fine. Likely there is a bug in how the porgram is updating vs. a clean install.

Thanks, I was tearing my hair out (what is left of it) trying to figure the same problem out. The very useful "" error message doesn't help a lot does it. Your Uninstall/Reinstall solution worked perfectly. I had done a download / install of a new version to try and fix the problem too, but that didn't work. Only an uninstall/re-install did. Thanks again.

It helps deleting all data sources and then close Power BI Desktop and reopen.

/sdjensen

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