Medium severitydata source
Power BI Refresh Error:
Connection string not supported
What does this error mean?
The connection string used in the dataset contains options or syntax that Power BI Service or the gateway does not support. Power BI Desktop is more permissive; Service has stricter connection string validation. Because this is a configuration error, Power BI may not attempt a refresh at all — if no refresh runs are created, downstream monitoring tools will detect this as a missed or delayed schedule rather than a specific error code.
Common causes
- 1Connection string parameters that work in Power BI Desktop are not allowed in Service (e.g., TrustServerCertificate=True)
- 2Named instance syntax (SERVER\INSTANCE) vs IP+port causes parsing issues in some gateway versions
- 3Special characters in passwords or server names that need URL encoding
- 4Using an unsupported driver-specific keyword in the connection string
How to fix it
- 1Simplify the connection string to the minimum required fields: Server, Database, and Authentication.
- 2Use the gateway data source configuration in Power BI Service instead of embedding all options in the connection string.
- 3If using named instances, try switching to explicit IP:port format.
- 4Check the Power BI documentation for supported connection string keywords for your connector type.
- 5Re-create the data source from scratch in Power BI Desktop with the standard connector wizard.