My Self-Service Portal Is Down

Modified on Tue, Oct 21 at 11:19 AM

Applies To: Work 365 Self-Service Portal (Power Pages / Dynamics 365)
Audience: Administrators, Support Engineers, System Owners

Overview

If your Work 365 Self-Service Portal is inaccessible—showing “Authentication failed,” “Site not loading,” or a blank page—the most common cause is an expired Website Authentication Key.
This key links your Power Pages site to your Dataverse environment and typically expires every 24 months. Once expired, the portal can’t authenticate to Dataverse and goes offline.

Reference: Work 365 Support Portal – Portal Authentication Key Renewal

Prerequisites

Global Administrator in Microsoft Entra ID (Azure AD)
Portal Owner for the Power Pages site
Estimated time: ~10 minutes

Resolution: Renew the Website Authentication Key

Step 1: Open Power Platform Admin Center

Go to admin.powerplatform.microsoft.com.
Select the environment where your portal is hosted.

Step 2: Open Portal Management

In the left nav, expand Resources and select Power Pages (or Portals in older UI).
Find your portal, select it, then click Manage.

Step 3: Renew the Website Authentication Key

In portal settings, locate Website Authentication Key.
Click Update Key or Renew Key.
Wait for the success confirmation. The system will:
- Generate a new key pair
- Update the linked Entra ID app registration with the new public key

Tip: If Renew is greyed out, confirm you’re signed in as both a Global Admin and the Portal Owner.

Step 4: Validate the Portal

Open the portal URL in a fresh browser tab.
Confirm pages load and the authentication error is gone.

If It’s Still Down: Quick Checks

Check	What to do
Browser cache	Hard refresh (Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + R) or use a private/incognito window.
Restart the site	Power Platform Admin Center → Power Pages → Site actions → Restart site.
Environment access	Ensure the environment isn’t locked by a security group that excludes you (or your users).
Service health	In Microsoft 365 Admin Center → Health → Service health, verify there’s no Dataverse/Power Pages outage.

Reference: Microsoft Learn – Power Pages Authentication Troubleshooting

Best Practices

Renew proactively: Set a reminder—keys expire every 24 months.
Document renewals: Record last/next renewal dates in your IT runbook.
Least privilege: Limit renewal capability to trusted admins.
Monitor: Review Power Pages diagnostics and sign-in metrics to catch auth issues early.

FAQs

Q: How long after renewal until the site is back?
A: Usually immediately after the success message; allow a couple of minutes for caching/propagation.

Q: Does renewing affect data or customizations?
A: No. It only restores the trust between Power Pages and Dataverse.

Q: I don’t see the Renew button.
A: Verify your role (Global Admin + Portal Owner) and that you’re in the correct environment.