Resolving “Unable to read data from the transport connection” Error in Power BI

Reconnecting the Dots: Troubleshooting “Unable to Read Data from the Transport Connection” in Power BI

Mohsin Mukhtiar
Microsoft Power BI
3 min readDec 15, 2023

--

Power BI users have encountered a persistent error during data set refresh, with the message “Unable to read data from the transport connection: An existing connection was forcibly closed by the remote host.” This issue has been a cause of frustration for many users, and despite active discussions in Power BI forums, a definitive solution has yet to be identified.

Understanding the Error: The error originates from a data source access problem, specifically related to OData. The underlying error code indicates that the transport connection was forcibly closed by the remote host, leading to a failed data refresh. The affected data source is identified as an OData feed from a specific URL

Analysis of the Issue: The root cause of this error is often attributed to the remote server’s inability to handle concurrent processing of multiple tables, exacerbated by large Power BI (PBI) file sizes. When multiple queries are executed simultaneously, it overwhelms the server and results in the existing connection being forcibly closed.

Proposed Solution: To mitigate this issue and facilitate a successful report refresh, users can follow these steps:

  1. Update Power BI Desktop: Ensure that your Power BI Desktop is running the latest version. Regular updates often include bug fixes and performance enhancements.
  2. Adjust Parallel Loading Settings: Navigate to “Options” in Power BI Desktop, then go to “Current File,” “Data Load.” Change the parallel loading of tables from the default setting to “One.” This configuration prevents the execution of multiple queries simultaneously, allowing them to be processed one at a time. Alternatively, users can choose the “Custom” option and experiment with the optimal number of tables to process concurrently.

Pros and Cons:

  • Advantage: The proposed solution ensures a successful report refresh by preventing the simultaneous execution of multiple queries.
  • Disadvantage: The trade-off is that the report refresh may take longer, as queries are processed sequentially. This might result in a slower refresh time compared to parallel processing.

Conclusion: While the “Unable to read data from the transport connection” error remains a persistent challenge in Power BI, taking proactive measures such as updating the Power BI Desktop and adjusting parallel loading settings can help users overcome this issue. It is essential to strike a balance between data refresh speed and the complexity of queries to optimize the overall performance of Power BI reports. As the Power BI platform evolves, continuous monitoring of updates and community discussions will be crucial for staying informed about potential solutions and improvements.

🎯Ask anything, I will try my best to answer and help you out.

Click Here — Reach Me Out

If you found my article helpful, I would greatly appreciate it if you could share it with your network. You can also show your support by clapping (up to 50 times!) to let me know you enjoyed it.

Don’t forget to follow me on Medium, Twitter and connect with me on LinkedIn to stay updated on my latest articles.

Don’t forget to subscribe to

👉 Power BI Publication

👉 Power BI Newsletter

and join our Power BI community

👉 Power BI Masterclass

--

--

Mohsin Mukhtiar
Microsoft Power BI

💼 Microsoft Certified Data Engineer | 🔍 BI Developer | 📊 Power BI/DAX | 📈 Microsoft Fabric for end-to-end analytics | 🛠️ Databricks | 🐍 Python