Forum Discussion
Google Analytics GA4 Authentication Error
Hi eclarkeMSI ,
If you’re seeing the “unexpected character in the JSON input” error when connecting Google Analytics GA4 to Power BI, here’s what actually works:
1. Always use the untouched, freshly downloaded JSON key from Google Cloud. Don’t open or edit the file in any other program just download and upload straight to Power BI.
2. Double-check your authentication method. For service accounts, use “Service Principal” or OAuth2 as required. If you pick the wrong one, you’ll get auth errors.
3. If you update your credentials, fully delete and re-create the connection in Power BI Service. Just “editing credentials” often isn’t enough. Re-create the data source with the new key.
4. If direct connection still fails, set up a Power BI Dataflow or Fabric Dataflow to pull from GA4, then use that as your source. A lot of users (myself included) have found this works even when everything else fails.
5. Check that you’re using HTTPS/SSL for all connections. Power BI requires this for OAuth2 and will silently fail otherwise.
6. Keep an eye on Power BI and Google service status sometimes it’s just a platform-wide issue. If you follow these steps and still get stuck, share the specific error or where it fails and I’ll try to help troubleshoot further. This issue is super common right now, but these steps usually get things working.
I tried all of what you suggested. My account is a single user organizational account, only OAuth2 is available when I Edit Credentials. No success. It just started yesterday though, it was working fine before.
