What causes Unable to sign in?

The SSL/TLS certificate revocation check fails when Power BI Desktop tries to establish a secure connection during sign-in. The error message reads: 'The underlying connection was closed: Could not establish trust relationship for the SSL/TLS secure channel'. Corporate network policies or proxy servers may interfere with certificate revocation list (CRL) lookups

How do I fix Unable to sign in?

In Power BI Desktop, go to File > Options and settings > Options > Security.. Under 'Certification Revocation', disable the certification revocation check.. Restart Power BI Desktop and attempt to sign in again.. For details on the certificate revocation setting, see the Power BI Desktop certificate revocation documentation.

Medium severityauthentication

Power BI Refresh Error:
Unable to sign in

What does this error mean?

Power BI Desktop cannot sign in — the SSL/TLS certificate revocation check fails. Fix by disabling the revocation check in Options > Security.

Common causes

1The SSL/TLS certificate revocation check fails when Power BI Desktop tries to establish a secure connection during sign-in
2The error message reads: 'The underlying connection was closed: Could not establish trust relationship for the SSL/TLS secure channel'
3Corporate network policies or proxy servers may interfere with certificate revocation list (CRL) lookups

How to fix it

1In Power BI Desktop, go to File > Options and settings > Options > Security.
2Under 'Certification Revocation', disable the certification revocation check.
3Restart Power BI Desktop and attempt to sign in again.
4For details on the certificate revocation setting, see the Power BI Desktop certificate revocation documentation.

Frequently asked questions

Does this error affect all users or just the dataset owner?

The refresh runs under the dataset owner's OAuth token. Only the dataset owner needs to re-authorize — other users can still view existing report data.

How often do OAuth tokens expire in Power BI?

It depends on the connected service. Microsoft 365 tokens typically expire after 60–90 days of inactivity. SharePoint Online tokens may expire sooner if the organization's token lifetime policy is stricter.

Can I prevent this from happening again?

Use a service account (non-personal account) as the dataset owner for production datasets. Service account tokens don't expire due to password resets or departures.

Does this error appear in Power BI Desktop?

No — authentication errors of this type only occur during scheduled or manual refreshes in Power BI Service.

Source · learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/connect-data/desktop-error-launching-desktop