Report Import Fails Due to Salesforce Step-Up Authentication

When importing a Salesforce report, the import fails with an error. This happens even though you can open and run the same report in Salesforce without any issues.

Your Salesforce org has step-up authentication (also called session-level security or high-assurance session) enforced for report exports. When this policy is active, Salesforce requires an additional identity verification step before allowing a report to be exported.

To import report data, our connector downloads the report from Salesforce in CSV format behind the scenes. Because this download is an automated API request, there is no way to complete the extra verification step, and Salesforce blocks the export — causing the import to fail.

1. Disable step-up authentication (if possible)

If your security policy allows it, ask your Salesforce administrator to relax the step-up authentication requirement for report exports:

1. In Salesforce Setup, search for Identity Verification.
2. Under Session Security Level Policies, find Reports and Dashboards.
3. Set the export policy so that id doesn’t require step-up authentication (None).

This is the most reliable fix, but it may not be an option in orgs with strict security requirements. In that case, use one of the workarounds below.

2. Export your Data via an SOQL Query

The most reliable way to import any amount of data is pull it using an SOQL query. The latest versions of all our products contain a tool that will help you convert existing reports to SOQL queries.
Important note: not all reports can be successfully converted to an SOQL query on the fly. If the conversion fails or you get wrong data when running the query, please work with your Salesforce admin to correct the query to return the data you need.

3. Add a unique ID column to the report

When using the Detailed Report option with step-up authentication enabled, our import algorithm will try to pull the data via Analytics API. However, this reliably works for reports over 2000 rows only if every row can be uniquely identified (there’s a unique ID column of the primary report object in the report).

Modify your report in Salesforce to include a column with a unique value for each row — for example, the Record ID of the primary object. Adding it will ensure that reports over 2000 rows are exported correctly.

Important: While this method works great for most reports, it is subject to Salesforce’s Analytics API limits. The limit is roughly 3,000,000 rows that can be exported from a singe Salesforce org within a rolling hour (60 minutes). This limit is spread across all users of the organization, so larger organizations with many users exporting many reports simultaneously may run into it. For such organizations, the most reliable way to ensure data export stability is to gradually switch some of the exports to SOQL (see point 2 above).

4. Use a Formatted Report Option (not available in XL-Connector 365)

When exporting a report, Xappex G-Connector and XL-Connector products allow to export it in Formatted (aka Printable) view. This retrieves the report through Analytics API that is not subject to the CSV export restriction.

Note that formatted reports are not raw data, so they will be in a different format. They also have Analytics API limitations (see important note in point 3 above).