Troubleshooting

This page contains a description of common problems and their solutions.

Error on Authentication

When Power BI prompts for credentials during data load or scheduled refresh setup, the Authentication method must be set to Anonymous.

This may seem counterintuitive: "anonymous" sounds like it means unauthenticated, but in Power BI, selecting Anonymous means "use the connection as configured and do not apply additional credentials" The API key embedded in the template parameters handles the actual authentication with the Admin By Request API. Selecting any of the other authentication options applies a second credential layer on top of the API key connection, which fails.

Symptoms: The template loads but shows no data, or an authentication error appears during load or scheduled refresh.

Fix: Re-open the template (or re-run the connection setup), and when the authentication method prompt appears, select Anonymous.

Error on Loading Data

Admin By Request tenants are distributed across different data centers. If the datacenter you selected in the template parameters does not match the one your tenant runs in, the API calls are routed to the wrong endpoint and the data load fails.

Symptoms: An error appears immediately after clicking Load or Next.

Fix: Re-open the template and select the correct Datacenter option from the drop-down. If you do not know which datacenter is the right one, you can look it up in the portal.

Null or Invalid Date Error on Initial Load

If an error appears during the initial data load referencing null or invalid dates, the most common cause is that one of the start date fields (AuditlogStartDate, InventoryStartDate, or EventsStartDate) was left blank or entered in an unrecognized format.

Fix: Open Transform Data > Edit Parameters, confirm all three start date fields are populated, and verify the date format matches your Power BI regional setting (M/D/YYYY or D/M/YYYY). Click OK, then click Apply changes on the yellow pending-changes banner, and retry the refresh.

Date Format Errors (HRESULT: 0x80040E4E)

The template uses an incremental refresh mechanism that compares date values. If the regional locale settings in Power BI Desktop are inconsistent, the date comparison fails with an error, commonly reported as HRESULT: 0x80040E4E.

There are two separate regional settings in Power BI Desktop that can affect date parsing independently:

1. Global setting: applies to all Power BI files on the machine

2. Current file setting: applies only to the currently opened report file

Both settings are found at File > Options and Settings > Options.

Symptoms: Data loads successfully on the first pull but scheduled refresh in Power BI Service fails, or an error appears when clicking Load after entering start dates.

Fix: Open File > Options and Settings > Options and ensure both the Global and Current File locale settings are set to the same region. Confirmed working combinations: both set to US English, or both set to German. A mixed configuration (one US English, one German) reliably reproduces the error.

Software Inventory Not Included by Default

The template pulls hardware inventory data (CPU, disk, RAM, OS build) via the Admin By Request Inventory API. Software inventory (the list of installed applications per device) is not included in the standard template.

The Admin By Request Inventory API supports a wantsoftware=1 parameter that returns software data alongside hardware data, but this parameter is not configured in the default template.

Workaround: Modify the template's Inventory API query to add the wantsoftware=1 parameter, or build a separate data flow using the API directly. Contact Admin By Request support for guidance on extending the template.

Q&A Visuals Retired (December 2025)

Microsoft retired the Power BI Q&A visual type in December 2025. If you are using a version of the Admin By Request template built before this date, some report pages may display a retirement notice or blank area in place of the Q&A visual.

Fix: Download the latest version of the template from the Admin By Request website (Docs > Integrations > Power BI). The current template version uses standard Power BI visuals in place of the retired Q&A type.