Stay connected with auto sign-in in Tableau 9.3

Update: Tableau 9.3 is here! Download now to try out the feature outlined below. 

Open Tableau Desktop. Sign in. Close Tableau.

Open again. Sign in again. Open a second instance of Tableau. Sign in again. Oh, what a pain!

If you use Tableau Online or Tableau Server, chances are you connect from Tableau Desktop to the same server (or the same handful of servers) and sites over and over.

Surely you've found yourself thinking, "If my web browser can remember my sign-in information, why can't Tableau Desktop?"

Now it can.

In Tableau 9.3, when you sign in to your Tableau Server or Tableau Online account, Tableau Desktop remembers your user credentials. The next time you open Tableau Desktop, you're automatically signed in to the server and site.

In addition to implementing auto sign-in, we've made some improvements to the UI. Tableau 9.3 makes it easy to see which server and site you're signed in to, and which user name you're signed in under.

We've also improved the display bar at the bottom of the window:

Once you're signed in, any actions that need connecting to the server will just work. You won't have to enter credentials, even when you open a new instance of Tableau Desktop.

There is one gotcha: The auto sign-in feature might not be available to you if your Tableau Server administrator has disabled connected clients on the server. If things don’t seem to be working as they're described here, contact your administrator.

What do you do if you have to connect to different servers and sites? Not to worry—we've got you covered. In Tableau Desktop, click Server > Signed in to [server] > Sign in to another server.

If you've previously signed in to a server, you can pick the server from a list—no need to enter credentials (auto sign-in, remember). If it's the first time you're signing in to the server, Tableau will ask you to enter credentials:

For Tableau Server, you can also switch to another site on the server by clicking Server > Signed in to [server] > Sign in to another site. You'll see a site-selection dialog with your current site selected:

Select the site to go to, and then click OK.

In Tableau 9.3, you cannot switch sites if you are connected to Tableau Online.

If you want Tableau Desktop to forget any credentials that have been saved for the current server, all you need to do is sign out from that server. If you want to clear automatic sign-ins for all servers, click Help > Settings and performance > Clear saver server sign-ins.

You might be wondering what we do to help enable secure auto sign-in. When you sign into a server for the first time, Tableau Desktop gets a token from the server. We store this token in secure storage on your computer.

On subsequent connections to the same server, we retrieve the token and pass it to the server. The server uses the token to determine that you've been authenticated. The result is that you don’t have to reenter your credentials every time. And that's how Tableau Desktop stays seamlessly connected to Tableau Server and Tableau Online.

Tableau 9.3 is currently in beta and is available for existing Tableau customers. Check out our beta program to learn more and sign up.

As with anything in beta, your feedback is important. So do let us know what you think. Visit the Ideas Forum and share your ideas for features you’d like to see in Tableau. If you have a question or feedback about the current functionality, please leave us a comment below.

Follow the blog for more news about Tableau 9.3, including an in-depth look at the new mapping features.

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