Low severityauthentication
Power BI Error:
AADSTS50085
What does this error mean?
The refresh token can't be silently renewed because the user originally signed in via a social/external identity provider.
Common causes
- 1The original authentication was performed via a social or external IdP (Microsoft account, Google, Facebook) that does not support silent refresh
- 2B2B guest user whose home tenant or social IdP session has expired
- 3Azure AD B2C user flow where the refresh token lifetime exceeds the social IdP's session lifetime
- 4Power BI / Fabric data source credentials stored under a guest or external account whose IdP session expired
- 5Conditional Access or MFA policy on the external IdP forces interactive re-login
How to fix it
- 1Have the affected user sign out completely and sign in again interactively (username + password) at the original IdP — silent token refresh will not work
- 2In Power BI Service, open the dataset/dataflow → Settings → Data source credentials → Edit credentials and reauthenticate with OAuth2
- 3For Azure Data Factory / Synapse / Fabric pipelines: open the linked service and re-enter credentials interactively so a fresh refresh token is issued
- 4If this is a B2B guest scenario, verify the guest still has an active session in the home tenant; reset the invitation if the account is stale
- 5For recurring failures, switch the data source from a personal/social account to a service principal or managed identity so refresh no longer depends on interactive IdP sessions