PowerBi Add-in 401 Status ERROR, but not using the API

[jordan413]

Hello!

So I have been currently having a issue with my PowerBi and PowerPoint. I am fairly confident the issue is because of PowerBi, but I am not entirely sure how to go about fixing it. 

I made a information board for the plant that I work at and the live data works perfectly. I have my gateways setup so I can get the data that I need. My problem comes randomly when the board has been displaying and cylcing the slides for a few hours I get a error that says 401 unauthorized. Sometimes it is all my slides with PowerBi other times it is just one. I did look into the RLS (Row Level Security), but didn't do much with it. I am into PowerPoint as the same account that created the the workspace. I just don't understand how the data can refresh perfectly fine then every once in awhile it gives a error.

I have tried some troubleshooting, but most of the troubleshooting I have found has to do with the API. Any help or direction of stuff to try would be perfect. 


EDIT: 

Part of me is wondering if it might have anything to do with PowerBi auto refreshing and seeing it as a different user that doesn't have access.
 

[v-kaiyue-msft]

Hi @jordan413 ,

This problem may occur because the token has expired. When we use the Power BI service, a token will be generated, and this token will have a life cycle. When the token expires and we use the old token to access the same resource, 401 Unauthorized will appear. You can open your power BI service and then F12 to open a report, and you can see the information about the token in the network. This is the token generated by power bi itself. When the session expires and the cookie expires, an error will occur. Therefore, you need to refresh the browser regularly. More details can be found in the documentation:Permission tokens needed to embed a Power BI app - Power BI | Microsoft Learn.

If your Current Period does not refer to this, please clarify in a follow-up reply.

Best Regards,

Clara Gong

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

[jordan413]

So do you need embed tokens when embedding into PowerPoint? If possible I'd like a bit more details on how the token process works. This sounds very intresting and definitely a way into the right direction.

[v-kaiyue-msft · Accepted solution]

Hi @jordan413 ,

When we use URL to embed the report into PowerPoint, Power Bi will automatically generate a token based on the login account. For the role of the Token in Power BI, you can refer to the document: Understand the OAuth 2.0 authorization code flow in Azure AD - Microsoft Entra | Microsoft Learn, the picture in the document shows the role of Token in detail.

Best Regards,

Clara Gong

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