Invalid credentials when editing a dataflow in the PBI service, refreshing still works

[bjorn99_]

Earlier this week I needed to make some changes in a dataflow which connect through the Web connector to the REST API of ServiceNow (returns in JSON format). Unfortunately I’m still unable to make the needed changes. In the editing mode in the PBI service I’m getting the following error:

All the credentials are stored in a on-premisis Gateway. Weirdly the dataflow still refreshes successful manually, scheduled and through a process in Power Automate. I removed and readded the credentials in the gateway and the same problem still occurred. Connecting in PBI Desktop using the same credentials that are stored in the Gateway works as well. Editing dataflows connected to other data sources does not give me this problem.

[DataInsights]

I'm experiencing this issue too. I have a dataflow with a mixture of database and spreadsheet sources. The dataflow refreshes successfully. However, the error below occurs when editing the dataflow. The query with the issue is sourced from a spreadsheet that is accessed via a gateway. This issue seems to have started last week.

[v-yetao1-msft]

Hi @bjorn99_ 

From the error message , seems to be an issue with credentials . You can create a new data source and then map the data source to dataflow . 

Best Regards,
Community Support Team _ Ailsa Tao

[bjorn99_]

Hi @v-yetao1-msft , thanks for your response. Unfortunately the issue isn’t solved yet. Last week we continued to search for the problem but we’re still not sure what the root cause is yet. During the trouble shooting we did found some new finding about the issue which might help in the investigation.

As I already said in the first post, we’re 99% sure it has nothing to do with invalid credentials since we deleted and readded the connection. Beside we can access the API in the Desktop version and through our browsers with the same credentials.

I created a small test plan to check if there were requests coming in on our API and I couldn’t find any while in the editor mode of the dataflow:

• Successful request from PBI Desktop
• Successful request from refreshing dataflow
• No requests in editor mode
• No requests after changing credentials in editor mode
• Successful request from PBI Desktop

We went through al the logs between the two successful logs from the desktop version. We specific searched for the source links we used in the editor mode and couldn’t find a single requests. Also searched for errors with invalid credentials (these exists in the logs but from other sources than PBI and not in the timeframe of the test).

Manually/scheduled/Power Automate refreshes are still working. I also deleted all my records without a Gateway cluster name before testing. The problem only occurs on this specific data source.

We also went through the logs of our Gateway and founded the following (file GatewayErrors). The error ‘DM_GWPipeline_Gateway_InvalidConnectionCredentials’ is always followed by ‘DM_GWPipeline_UnknownError’. I’m not familiar with these logs but if you need them for the investigation you can send me a personal message.

Personally I think something has changed or got corrupted which prevent the dataflow from using the general gateway source credentials (company.example.com/api/table/) and needs credentials on a full link like (company.example.com/api/table/microsoft). This is just a thought but it might has something to do with the root cause of the problem.

I tried creating new dataflows with the same gateway on different connectors in the PBI service:

• Web API, works
• Web page, invalid credentials
• JSON, works

In the advanced editor mode I always automatically get: Source = Json.Document(Web.Contents(<URL>), does not matter which connector I use. This format is also in all the tables of the advanced editor of the dataflow where the problem occurs. When adding a second table in the dataflow with the same gateway connection I get the error Invalid credentials again, only on the second table.

If there is anything else I can do/check to help for the investigation, just let me know. Thanks in advance for the help.

[DataInsights]

This may be related to the issue below. It seems to be manifesting in various scenarios.

https://community.powerbi.com/t5/Issues/Folder-permissions-On-Premise-gateway-not-working-in-dataflo... 

@bjorn99_,

See if the workaround I mentioned in the link above will work for you. I had the same issue when adding a second spreadsheet in the dataflow, so I fragmented the dataflow and used linked entities in my main dataflow.

[bjorn99_]

@DataInsights , the issue indeed seems familiar but we are experiencing it with an incomplete API link (which worked for 1.5 years before without problems).

My colleague was able to copy everything and paste it in a new datasource and make the needed changes so we changed the source of all our datasets and linked dataflows that were dependent on the 'Invalid credentials' dataflow. Strangely on the same gateway connection. I have tried this multiple times as well but I always got errors. But for now everything is working again fortunately.

[v-yetao1-msft]

Hi @bjorn99_ 

I am so glad to hear that everything is working again . I will change the status to "Delivered" .

Best Regards,
Community Support Team _ Ailsa Tao

[bjorn99_]

@v-yetao1-msftwell the old dataflow is still not working when it was for 1.5 years (we changed notting, it just stopped working) and creating new dataflows still gives invalid credential errors when adding more than one table. You can change it to delivered but nothing is fixed yet, we fixed it with a workaround. Your product is still not working as it should. Like I said it seems comparable to the issue mentioned above and we are experiencing it with an API link instead file locations.

[Anonymous]

We have the same problem. 

[Miruf]

Have the same issue and no idea how to fix.
An oberservation I have is that inside one dataflow one query can use a Gateway, all further queries have the described issue.

[JonnyB]

I am having exact same problem across a a number of dataflows that have been working happily for months. Something has changed in the last couple of weeks.

It's completely stopped me in my tracks for the past few days and currently have no solution.