Forum Discussion
Helper IFabric keeps deleting files!!
THis has happened several times already, a couple of times I didn't have GIT setup yet and lost work. This time at least I had GIT setup in my workspace so I was able to recover the files. What is Fabric deleting files?
Hi alloowishus,
Thanks for providing the additional details and for clarifying the sequence of events.
Based on your description, the workspaces were not connected to Git, and you did not perform any other workspace operations during the 3 to 4 day period. Therefore, the Git-related deletion scenarios discussed earlier do not appear to apply to this situation.
The fact that multiple workspaces were affected and that the semantic models, reports, and folders were all missing is important context. To help narrow down what may have occurred, could you provide the approximate date and time when you last confirmed that the items were present and when you first noticed that the workspaces were empty?
If available, any relevant activity or audit information from that timeframe would also be helpful. If the issue occurs again, providing the steps leading up to the behavior, along with the affected workspace and item types and approximate timestamps, would help with further investigation.
Thank you for the additional information.
9 Replies
v-abhinavmuCommunity Support
Hi alloowishus,
Thanks for reaching out to the Microsoft Fabric Community forum.
If the files are disappearing during Git branch-out or branch-switching operations, this behavior is documented by Microsoft.When branching out, items that aren't saved to Git can get lost, and Microsoft recommends committing any items you want to keep before branching out. When switching branches, the workspace is synchronized with the new branch. If an item exists in the old branch but not in the new branch, that item is deleted from the workspace.
If the files are being deleted outside of these Git operations, additional details about the operation performed before the files disappeared would be helpful in determining the cause.
For more details, please refer to the below Official Microsoft Documentation:
Overview of Fabric Git integration - Microsoft Fabric | Microsoft Learn
Development process using Branch-Out experience - Microsoft Fabric | Microsoft LearnI hope this helps. Please feel free to reach out if you have any further questions.
Thank you.
alloowishusThis isn't it. I had setup a new workspace and deployed a semantic model there from Tabular editor and also setup up some folders. I found these items completely deleted and I had NOT setup github (everything was lost). This also happened on another workspace, but I did have github setup so I was able to recover. This also happens to my colleague when setting up new workspaces. It's very frustrating.
- v-abhinavmu
Hi alloowishus,
Thanks for the clarification and for providing the additional context.
Based on your description, the workspaces were not connected to Git when the items were deleted, so the Git branch-out or branch-switching behavior discussed above would not apply to this scenario.
Since you've observed the same behavior across multiple newly created workspaces, including for your colleague, it would be helpful to gather some additional details to investigate the behavior further. In particular, the types of items affected, the approximate time when they disappeared, and any workspace or deployment operations performed before the items were deleted could help narrow down what happened.
If you can reproduce the behavior, sharing the steps leading up to the deletion and any relevant error messages or timestamps would also be useful for further investigation.
Thank you.
- alloowishus
We had some semantic models in a workspace and were trying to put in them in separate workspaces for security reasons. New workspaces were created in Fabric and the semantic models were deployed using the Tabular editor. I also started working on a Power BI report directly in the workspace. I was doing this for about 3 or 4 days, I did no other operations. I also did the same thing for a different workspace. One day I loaded up fabric and both these workspaces were completely empty. I lost a good deal of work in one of them, the other one I luckily had setup github so I was able to recover them. Also please note that it also deleted all the folders I had created, so it was not a "woops" moment where I accidentally deleted a semantic model.
- LumericVisuals
Helper II
This is usually a Git sync-direction issue rather than random deletion — "Update from Git" reconciles the workspace to match the connected branch, removing anything not present there.
A few points indicate that Git is not in play here. One of the workspaces that had been deleted was in no way linked to Git, and Git only removes items that are not found in the branch you are synchronizing with; it is impossible for it to empty a workspace that is not connected. Hence, the explanations based on branch synchronization do not apply in this situation.
The fact that in more than one newly created workspace the entire workspace, including all of its folders, is empty, and that the same thing occurs with a colleague, usually shows that the problem is due to the workspace's capacity and not to the items contained in it. The most common reason for this is that the trial capacity has expired, or that the capacity has been paused or deleted. When the capacity that supports a workspace is removed, the workspace loses its home, and its contents can therefore be deleted.
Worth checking, in order:
1. Which capacity are these workspaces on? When you check the capacity in the Workspace settings under License info, is it shown as a Trial (FT)? And in that case, is the trial currently active, and when will it expire? A trial ending is the most frequent cause of this particular symptom.
2. In the admin portal, when checking the capacity settings, it is necessary to verify that the capacity is still there, is active, and not paused; if the admin had deleted or paused it, then the workspaces associated with it will be affected.
3. The exact answer can be found in the audit log; if you filter it to show events relating to workspace and item deletions for the affected workspaces, you will see what caused it and when, either a person, a capacity change, or an automated process, and thus turn guessing into knowledge.
If it turns out to be a trial, moving these to a paid F capacity and keeping Git connected so the definitions survive will stop the bleeding. But confirm it in the audit log first.
