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How to Edit Credentials in Power BI

Cody Schneider••8 min read

Nothing stops a report in its tracks faster than a failed data refresh. When your Power BI dashboards suddenly show old data and you see that dreaded "failed" notification, the cause is often a simple but frustrating one: expired or incorrect credentials. This guide will show you exactly where to go and what to do to edit your data source credentials in both Power BI Service and Power BI Desktop so you can get your reports back online.

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Why Credentials Need Updating

You’re not doing anything wrong when a credential expires, it’s a normal part of data security and system maintenance. Keeping credentials fresh ensures that only authorized users continue to access sensitive business data. Understanding why your access needs updating can help you fix it faster.

Here are a few common reasons you might need to edit your credentials:

  • Expired Passwords: Many organizations enforce policies that require you to change your passwords every 90 days. When you update your password for a database or service, you must also update it in Power BI.
  • Changes in Permissions: If a team member leaves or changes roles, an IT administrator might revoke or change their access privileges, requiring a new set of credentials to be used for the data source.
  • Authentication Token Expiration: When you connect to modern cloud services (like Salesforce, HubSpot, or Google Analytics) using OAuth 2.0, Power BI uses an access token instead of a direct password. These tokens expire for security reasons, and you simply need to sign in again to generate a new one.
  • Migrating Data Sources: If your team moves a database from an on-premises server to a cloud environment like Azure SQL, the server address and authentication details will change, requiring a credential update.

Editing Credentials in Power BI Service

The Power BI Service is where your published reports live and where scheduled refreshes happen. If your automated refreshes are failing, this is the first place you should check.

Follow these steps to edit credentials in the Power BI Service:

  1. Log in to your Power BI account at app.powerbi.com.
  2. Navigate to the correct workspace from the left-hand navigation pane.
  3. Once in the workspace, click on the Datasets + dataflows tab.
  4. Find the dataset that is failing to refresh. Click the three vertical dots (...) next to its name, then select Settings from the menu.
  5. On the settings page, find the section called Data source credentials. It will list all the data sources connected to this dataset.
  6. Locate the source with the issue and click the Edit credentials link next to it.

A dialog box will appear where you can re-enter your connection details. The options you see will depend on the type of data source you're using.

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Understanding Authentication Methods

When you click "Edit credentials," Power BI presents you with several ways to connect. Choosing the right one is essential.

  • Basic: This is for traditional username and password authentication. It's common for SQL databases, SharePoint sites, and other internal systems. Just enter your updated username and password here.
  • Windows: Used for data sources that authenticate with your Active Directory (Windows) login. You might see options for entering credentials with or without impersonation. Usually, you'll enter your login in the format DOMAIN\username or username@domain.com.
  • OAuth2: The standard for most modern cloud apps (SaaS platforms). Instead of providing your password directly to Power BI, you'll be redirected to the service's own login page (like Google's or Salesforce's) to sign in. Once you approve access, the service sends a secure token back to Power BI. If this token expires, you just need to repeat this sign-in process.
  • Anonymous: For public data sources that don't require any login, such as data from a public website.
  • Key: Some web APIs and services require an API key for authentication. You’ll just paste the new API key in the provided field.

After you’ve entered the correct details and selected the right authentication method, click Sign in. If the connection is successful, you’ll see a confirmation message. Now you can go back to the dataset and try a manual refresh to make sure everything is working.

Editing Credentials in Power BI Desktop

Sometimes the connection issue occurs while you are building or editing a report in Power BI Desktop. The process here is slightly different and offers more granular control over how your credentials are saved.

To access your settings:

  1. Open your report (.pbix) file in Power BI Desktop.
  2. Go to File in the top-left corner.
  3. Click on Options and settings, and then select Data source settings.

The "Data source settings" window gives you two primary views, which can be a bit confusing at first: Data sources in current file and Global permissions.

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Data sources in current file vs. Global permissions

Understanding this distinction is the key to managing credentials effectively in Power BI Desktop.

  • Data sources in current file: This list shows every data connection used specifically for the PBIX file you have open right now. Editing credentials here only affects the current report. This is what you'll use most of the time when fixing a specific report's connection.
  • Global permissions: This list shows every data source connection you have ever made in Power BI Desktop on your computer. When you change credentials here, you are changing the saved, default credentials for that source for any future report you create. For example, if you change your company's SQL server password here, any new report you build will automatically use the new password.

How to Edit Credentials for the Current File

  1. In the "Data source settings" window, make sure you're on the Data sources in current file tab.
  2. Select the data source that needs updating from the list.
  3. Click the Edit Permissions button at the bottom.
  4. A new dialog will appear. Next to "Credentials," click the Edit... button.
  5. This will open the authentication window where you can enter the new username/password, sign in with OAuth2, or enter an API key, just like in Power BI Service.
  6. Click OK and then Close. Try refreshing your data in the Power BI Desktop app to confirm it worked.

How to Edit Global Credentials

If you need to update a password for a source you use often or if you want to clear old, unused permissions, "Global permissions" is the place to go.

  1. In the "Data source settings" window, click on the Global permissions tab.
  2. Scroll through the list to find the desired data source.
  3. Once selected, you have two main options:
  4. After editing or clearing, click Close.

Common Troubleshooting Tips for Credential Errors

Even when you know the steps, things can still go wrong. Here are a few common hangups and how to fix them.

Credential Type Mismatch

This happens when you use an incorrect authentication method. For example, trying to use "Basic" (username/password) to connect to Office 365, which requires "Organizational account" (OAuth2). Always double-check which authentication your data source expects.

On-Premises Data Gateway Errors

If you're connecting to a data source that is located within your company's private network (like a local SQL Server), you are likely using an on-premises data gateway. This gateway acts as a secure bridge between your local data and the Power BI Service in the cloud. In this situation, you have two places where credentials must be correct:

  • The data source credentials in the Power BI Service (as covered above).
  • The data source credentials within the gateway configuration itself on the computer where it is installed.

If one is wrong, the refresh will fail. Check both locations.

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"We couldn't authenticate with the credentials provided"

This is the most generic - and most common - error. Go back to basics:

  • Are you absolutely sure there are no typos in the username or password?
  • Are you using the right username format (e.g., firstname.lastname@company.com vs. your network login COMPANY\flastname)?
  • Do you have permission to access that specific database, server, or resource? Confirm with your IT department.
  • If all else fails, use the "Clear permissions" option in Power BI Desktop's global settings to force a fresh login attempt.

Final Thoughts

Keeping your data connections up and running is fundamental to reliable business intelligence. Learning your way around the Data source settings in both the Power BI Service and Desktop will turn what used to be a point of panic into a routine, two-minute fix when refresh failures strike.

At our core, we believe that managing credentials and debugging connections is a frustrating symptom of a larger problem: spending too much time on manual data busywork. We built Graphed to be the easiest way to connect to services like Google Analytics, Shopify, and Salesforce. Our one-click integrations mean you connect once and get real-time, automatically updating dashboards without ever having to worry about OAuth tokens and API keys again. You can just ask questions in plain English and let the AI do the work of building reports and finding insights for you.

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