Session ID cannot be found.

[Nipius]

Hi there!

I have created a dataset in Power BI, which I've linked to Excel via the Microsoft Power BI Publisher for Excel. It works fine until I stop using the pivot tables for several minutes. If I then want to use a pivot table again, it gives me the following message: "The "AAD44836- et cetera" session ID cannot be found. Either the session does not exist or it has already expired". The "et cetera" is course not the actual value. 🙂

It looks like at some point the connection between Power BI and Excel seem to go idle or in hibernation mode.

When I try changing the pivot tables two or three times, it seems to restore the connection again.

Is this something I can prevent from happening?

[bruceandersonBI]

We are having this issue with a BI Service report that we have exported to Analyze in Excel.  It is a report the users live in and so is open all day. But after several minutes of non use the Session ID cannot be found" error occurs.  Looking at the dates in this thread this is a very long running issue.  Would love to hear of any fixes.  I am thinking to recreate the report as a live connection, but that will be a lot of work in Excel.

[ldnewlin]

Might I suggest as a workaround by changing the Connection Properties of the Data Source to Refresh every: x minutes. 

By default, this is left unchecked.

Please let me know if this is a workable solution for you!

[great_reset]

This works.  However, the problem is it freezes all other open Excel instances while the refresh is running.  For example the individual is working in another workbook, this open workbook will freeze while the refresh is taking place in the other workbook.  So this is not a practical solution.

We have checked in with the Power BI Support team at Microsoft.  They verified this is known behaviour and by design given the cloud based delivery model.  I logged a Design Change Request.  Hope they sort it out! 

[BruceAnderson20]

Many thanks!  I will give it a  try.

[sspicer]

I have this same problem with my team. Anyone know of a fix?

[Anonymous]

Hi, Have you ever solved it?

[johanjsc]

We also have customers with this issue - was this ever resolved for you?

[gavin007]

same problem. which is annoying

[nicg]

Our users get this session ID error quite often when connecting to our shared Power BI dataset through Excel. I suspect it has something to do with the model being evicted or something, but it's hard to say since there's no good tooling to let us know what's happening in our tenant, especially with V2 workspaces.

It's unfortunate, because many users would like to move back to on-premise SSAS where we didn't have all these connection and memory issues. ☹️

[great_reset]

Did you ever manage to solve this?

[prokhorovd]

I have the same problem too

The 'XXXXX-XXX-XXX-XXX-XXX' session ID cannot be found. Either the session does not exist or it has already expired

An error can occur when updating any dataset and by accident. I did not find any dependencies. About 2-3 errors occur on 800 dataset`s updates per day

[v-juanli-msft]

Hi @Nipius 

Which do you mean "I stop using the pivot tables for several minutes" ?

Which is the data source of the power bi report you connect to from excel?

You could check this article :

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/publisher-for-excel#connect-to-data-in-power-bi

Best Regards
Maggie

Community Support Team _ Maggie Li
If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.

[Nipius]

Hi @v-juanli-msft 

The Power BI report uses data from an SQL server and several Excel reports on my computer. I use DirectImport to create a datamodel which I then connect to Excel. I've created several pivot tables that I update everytime I'd like to show data for a different employee ID. 

When I open the file, Excel updates the pivot tables without any issues. But when I then look at the output for some minutes and decide to change the filter to a different employee ID, I get the notification I referred to in my initial post. Only after trying to change the filter two or three times, it seems the connection with Power BI has been restored and then it works again without any issues. Until I stop changing the pivot tables for some minutes again.

[Anonymous]

I have the same problem...repeatedly.