Forum Discussion
PowerBI Service Scheduled refresh error for Google Analytics
Hi all, this has been resolved by devs it seems. I went to check if I could put my report back on scheduled refresh just there and it is now working again. So, the token issue that I am assuming was preventing the connection from Google Analytics to Power BI is now working fine.
Based on the consistent error message of "unexpected character in the JSON input" and the fact that multiple users have reported this, the root cause is very likely a change or regression in how the Power BI Service handles the OAuth token response from the Google Analytics connector v2.
More specifically the Power BI Service backend is failing to parse a part of the OAuth 2.0 response JSON but this does not affect Power BI Desktop, as the OAuth flow there is handled differently (locally).
Roight now you can use BigQuery as an Intermediary if your organization has access to BigQuery (especially if you’re using GA4). Export your Google Analytics data to BigQuery (this is supported natively in GA4). Then in Power BI Service, connect to BigQuery using the BigQuery connector (OAuth works fine here). Now schedule refresh using that source.
If you are still unable to solve the issue you can reach out to Microsoft Support by raising a ticket with Microsoft Support.
Please refer below link on how to raise a contact support or support ticket.
How to create a Fabric and Power BI Support ticket - Power BI | Microsoft Learn
Best Regards,
Hammad.
Community Support Team
I tried to set up a BigQuery connector in the meantime while the Google Analytics to Power BI Connection was not working for the Scheduled refresh and I got to a certain point and it was failing to connect to the BigQuery project I had set up.
SQL Statement I am trying to use:
SELECT
PARSE_DATE('%Y%m%d', event_date) AS date,
user_pseudo_id,
device.category AS device_category,
device.web_info.browser,
device.operating_system,
geo.city,
geo.country,
(SELECT value.string_value FROM UNNEST(event_params) WHERE key = "page_title") AS page_title,
(SELECT value.string_value FROM UNNEST(event_params) WHERE key = "content_group") AS page_category,
engagement_time_msec
FROM
`cogent-node-459214-r4.analytics_320122991.events_*`
WHERE
_TABLE_SUFFIX BETWEEN '20250101' AND '20250516'
AND event_name IN ('page_view', 'user_engagement');
Is there something wrong with the SQL Query I am using here as it keeps failing. I am trying to find out how can Query the BigQuery project I have created based on the GA4 Data I have.