Troubleshooting a 401 "Unauthorized" error for API calls (Community)

View the original community article here

Last tested: Oct 1, 2019
 

A 401 HTTP response indicates a problem with the authentication credentials used to make the API call. This is pretty broad, but here are some things you can check:

1. That either the Client ID and Secret are correct, or the token is correct (the Client ID and Secret are used to get the token, but once you have the token, you don't need the ID and Secret)
2. Whether the user making the call is an Admin, or has the required permissions to make the call
3. That the URL doesn't end in a slash (for example, api/3.0/lookml_models works, but api/3.0/lookml_models/ does not)
4. In Postman, if you make a call using http without the port number, you'll get a 401 error. You'll need to use https AND include the port number to avoid errors. For example: https://your_company.looker.com:19999/api/3.0/login
5. If you are seeing a 401 on the API docs prior to logging in or making calls, it may be that you have "Require API login to see API docs" selected. You should still be able to log in from this page, and will need to log in before you can view the interactive docs.

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