PowerBI Dataset used in Excel "expires" after approx. 15 minutes

KasperJ90 · ‎12-05-2022

Hi,

We have a PowerBI dataset that people use in Excel. The problem is that the connection "expires".
This means when a user opens Excel and connect it works, but then they need to edit the pivottable later it always gives below errors:

The dataset is used in Excel for daily work, so users have the filen open all day, but it drives them crazy they get the errors every 15 minutes. They need to press ok to both errors and refresh the dataset via "refresh all" in Excel. How can I fix this?

RufusJCat · ‎12-22-2022

I get what microsoft is trying to do here- they want to close out the connection to their servers. But this is really poorly executed, and it creates a horrible user experience. There is no way to "reenter your credentials" when this happens, so the only solution is to close, then reopen, the file. And it's not like the user actually re-enters credentials when reopening the file, so what is the point? Why not just reactivate the connection when the user clicks on a slicer or in some other way triggers a refresh? I know I know I know someon is gonna suggest the "idea space" or whatever they are calling it these days but really, why should we have to suggest an idea to make the product not suck so badly that it's unusable? 🙂

v-yueyunzh-msft · ‎12-05-2022

Hi , @KasperJ90

According to the message 'The session ID cannot be found. Either the session does not exist or it has already expired', seems like when you do not use analyze in excel for some time, the session would be expoired. After closing this message, it would be 're-connected'.

See this similar note:Token expired error

Troubleshoot the connection from Excel to Power BI data - Power BI | Microsoft Learn

If you receive a token expired error, it means you haven't recently used the Analyze in Excel feature on the computer you're using. Simply re-enter your credentials, or reopen the file, and the error should go away.

Thank you for your time and sharing, and thank you for your support and understanding of PowerBI!

Best Regards,

Aniya Zhang

If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly

KasperJ90 · ‎12-05-2022

I can do this - but it is not a good solution for business users.
If I save an Excel file all business users can access can I then avoid this error by some settings in the file?
The goal is that when business users open the file it is working without it expires.