Forum Discussion
Pipeline Copy Activity unable to copy delta table to local SQL server
Hi TWorku,
Thank you for the clarification that makes complete sense, and your approach is valid.
What you are seeing aligns with current Fabric behaviour: when copying directly from a Lakehouse, DATE columns can be exposed as high-precision DateTime metadata at runtime, which causes SQL Server conversion failures. By merging the data into a Warehouse first, the schema is normalized to strict relational types, which is why the subsequent copy to local SQL Server runs successfully and within an expected time frame.
Given your requirement to keep source data types unchanged, this Warehouse-based pattern is a solid and supported design choice. While it does introduce an additional object to manage, it avoids the staging performance penalty and provides predictable copy behaviour. Until the Lakehouse Copy metadata handling is improved, this is one of the most reliable solutions for production workloads.Hope that clarifies. Let us know if you have any doubts regarding this. We will be happy to help.
Thank you for using the Microsoft Fabric Community Forum.
Super UserHi TWorku,
You’re copying a Delta table from Fabric Lakehouse to a local SQL Server.
The table has a ReportDate column of type DATE.
Copy activity fails because the system interprets it as DATETIME with a timestamp
Alternatives :
1) Use Mapping in Copy Activity
In the Copy Activity’s Mapping tab, explicitly map the source column to the target column:
Source: ReportDate (Date)
Target: ReportDate (Date)
This often forces proper conversion without staging.
2) Use Dataflow / Data Transformation
Instead of straight Copy Activity, create a Dataflow or Wrangling Dataflow to cast the column explicitly:
Hope it can help you!
Best regards,
Antoine
Thank you for your response Antoine. It is mapped correctly as you suggested. it won't work without enabling staging. I did not want to use Dataflow.