Forum Discussion
Excel Power Query / Analysis Services authentication fails after reopening workbook
Hi BIscoverer ,
Thank you for reaching out to the Microsoft Community Forum.
This matches a token reuse issue where Excel holds onto an invalid Entra token and doesn’t trigger a fresh sign-in, which is why clearing credentials only works temporarily. Since the XMLA (Analysis Services) connection works reliably across sessions while the Power Query import path does not, this points to a connector-specific limitation or bug rather than expected SSO behavior. If token persistence were inherently unsupported, the XMLA connection would fail the same way but it doesn’t.
Given you’re on Monthly Enterprise Channel, this is likely tied to the Excel build and how the SSAS connector in Power Query handles modern auth/token refresh. In practice, the only stable workarounds today are using the XMLA path where possible or continuing with credential reset / full Office re-auth cycles.
At this point, it’s worth raising a Microsoft Support ticket so they can confirm if this is a known issue or build-specific limitation and advise on a fix or timeline: How to create a Fabric and Power BI Support ticket - Power BI | Microsoft Learn
Community Support Team.