Fix Looker Studio dataset connection issues easily

Looker Studio cannot connect to your dataset

If you end up here, you probably just found out a bunch of errors in your report. And when you check on more details, you just get this :

Looker Studio cannot connect to your dataset.

This happens when Looker Studio cannot find the underlying data sources and can be caused by several issues. Here is a step-by-step guide to follow to track them all.

Possible errors

• Missing data source
• Data set configuration error
• No data set access
• Data source not attached
• Data source needs to be added
• The underlying data has changed
• Database connection error

How to fix ?

The first step is to check if the data source is rightfully attached to the component:

Click on the error component, locate his data source on the panel configuration, if it's broken, add the data source again. If the data source is already OK, go to the next step.

Refresh the data source list.

You can do that by going on : Resource -> Manage Added Data Sources -> Edit -> Refresh fields (button on the left bottom of your fields list).

Once refreshed, Looker Studio will display all the change made.

Check that the account is rightfully attached to the data source:

Edit the broken data source by going on Resource -> Manage Added Data Sources -> Edit -> Edit connection.

Here is your connection to your account. The drop-down should contain the name of your account. If it is not the case, click on it and find your account.

Click on it and click Reconnect at the top right of the page.

Remove the data source and add it back:

For this one, you need to remove your data source from the report, then add it back. If you do not want to recreate everything, I strongly advise being sure your data source is reusable. If it's embedded in the report, you will have to recreate all your calculated field and rename all metrics you already renamed.

To check if a data source is reusable, got to Resource -> Manage Added Data Sources. In the column Type is your data source type. If it's reusable, it's OK, if not, go click on the Make this datasource reusable at the end of the row.

Then click on Remove to remove the data source from the report. Close the Manage Added Data Source panel and then click Add Data to re-add your data source.

Create a completely new one

If neither of the previous solution works, you can try to create a new fresh data source to see if it's working.

Database connection error

Lastly, you can remove the Looker Studio access to your Google account by going on https://myaccount.google.com/.

First verify that you are login with the right Google account. Then go on Security, scroll down to the Third-party app with account access, click on it.

Search for Google Data Studio / Looker Studio on the Google Apps section.

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If none of the solution above works, feel free to contact us on our chat. We're happy to help you =)