OData issue in PowerBI and Excel 2016

[V_Croquette]

PowerBI seems to have an issue with one of the OData services we maintain (using Windows authentication).

Users can retrieve data from this service OK but at some point, they'll get the following message:

Unable to connect
We encountered an error while trying to connect.
Details: "We couldn't parse OData response result. Error: A type named ... could not be resolved by the model. When a model is available, each type must resolve to a valid type."

From this point, Power BI refuses any subsequent call to the same service with the following error message:

Unable to connect
We encountered an error while trying to connect.
Details: "OData: The given URL neither points to an OData service or a feed: 'http://...'"

The only workaround we've found is to use the Clear Cache option which (temporarily) fixes the issue.

Please note that we don't have any issues with this service when using:
A browser
Excel v<2016
Excel 2016 using the legacy OData Legacy Wizard
Tableau

Thanks for your help

[v-qiuyu-msft]

Hi @V_Croquette,

I will close this thread. If you have issues again, you can post a new thread. 🙂

Best Regards,
Qiuyun Yu

[V_Croquette]

No other question, thanks (I've submited an idea)

[v-qiuyu-msft]

Hi @V_Croquette,

Do you have any other question? If not, may I close this thread? 

Best Regards,
Qiuyun Yu

[V_Croquette]

OK thanks for your help

[v-qiuyu-msft · Accepted solution]

Hi @V_Croquette,

Power BI desktop does cache the OData schema, and based on my research, it's not able to disable it currently. We need to clear cache manually. You can submit a idea here: https://ideas.powerbi.com/forums/265200-power-bi-ideas

Best Regards,
Qiuyun Yu

[V_Croquette]

Actually is it possible to disable caching for a given data source?

Thanks

[V_Croquette]

Hi Qiuyun Yu and thanks for your replay

We're using Version: 2.51.4885.701 64-bit (October 2017)

One thing before I send you the fiddler trace log, does Power BI cache the odata schema? In our case the schema is dynamic, i.e. if the OData service is restarted, entity types may have different names and different properties than the previous time.

If Power BI relies on the assumption that entity type names never change and will always have the same properties, it won't work in our case (but works OK in Excel <2016 or Tableau)

Could you please confirm or infirm whether Power BI caches OData schema?

Thanks in advance

[v-qiuyu-msft]

Hi @V_Croquette,

1. Please try to share Fiddler trace and desktop trace log with us. 

2. Please try to run the latest Power BI desktop version. 

Best Regards,
Qiuyun Yu