This is a problem that should have been solved years ago, and it's frustrating to see people still fighting with password prompts, slow refreshes, and shared files that break every two months. The user who posted this is describing a routine corporate reality: mandatory password changes, SharePoint-linked Power Query imports, and a workflow that turns a simple refresh into a ten-minute ordeal. Their question is direct: "Is there a way to prevent this?" The short answer is yes, but the longer answer reveals how much friction legacy tools still impose on everyday productivity.
The core issue here is that Excel's Power Query treats SharePoint authentication as a separate handshake, even when you are already signed into the Microsoft ecosystem with your updated credentials. The password change creates a mismatch between the cached credentials Power Query holds and the current Windows login. That forces a manual re-entry, and for anyone else trying to open the file, the same prompt appears. The ten-minute delay the user mentions is not unusual, it's the result of Power Query re-authenticating and re-fetching data from multiple source files each time. This is not a user error. It is a design limitation of a tool that was built for static data sources, not live collaborative environments.
What this means in practical terms is that teams relying on this setup are losing hours every quarter to authentication overhead. The workaround exists: store credentials in a secure, persistent location using Power Query's native Windows authentication or, for shared files, use a service account with a non-expiring token. Another option is to migrate the query logic into Power BI or a dataflow, where credential management is centralized and does not break with every password reset. But those solutions require admin access or a willingness to leave Excel behind entirely. For the user stuck in the middle, the immediate fix is to check the "Skip Test Connection" option in Power Query settings and ensure the connection is set to use Windows Authentication rather than a stored web credential.
Our take is that this pain point is a symptom of a larger mismatch between how people actually work and how traditional spreadsheets handle authentication. The user is not asking for anything exotic, they just want a file that refreshes reliably without a login prompt every two months. That should be table stakes for any modern data tool. If your spreadsheet requires a ten-minute manual ritual to stay current, it is no longer a productivity tool; it is a bottleneck. The solution is not to accept the workaround as permanent, but to question why the tool itself cannot handle a routine credential change without breaking your workflow. Explore alternatives that treat authentication as infrastructure, not a recurring chore.