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PBI_2K26's avatar
PBI_2K26
Icon for Advocate I rankAdvocate I
2 months ago
Solved

Snowflake connexion too slow

Hello community, I'm currently working on a Power BI project and trying to connect to a Snowflake database. However, I'm experiencing very slow connection and data loading times, even when queryin...
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  • v-kathullac's avatar
    v-kathullac
    2 months ago

    Hi PBI_2K26 ,

     

    Thank you for reaching out to Microsoft Fabric Community Forum.

     

    Based on your issue there are few debug steps which you can try and reslove your issue.

    • Network latency between the Power BI client/service and the Snowflake environment.
    • Snowflake connector or driver version (ensure the latest Power BI Desktop version is being used).
    • Authentication method (OAuth, SSO, external browser authentication, etc.), as repeated authentication or token validation can introduce delays.
    • Gateway performance, if Power BI Service is using an On-premises Data Gateway.
    • Proxy, firewall, VPN, or SSL inspection that may be affecting communication between Power BI and Snowflake.
    • Metadata retrieval from Snowflake. Sometimes loading the list of databases, schemas, and tables can be slower than the actual query execution.
    • Check whether the issue occurs across different networks or machines to rule out a client-specific or network-specific problem

    Thanks,

    Chaithanya.

     

  • PBI_2K26's avatar
    PBI_2K26
    2 months ago

    Hello community,

     

    Thank you all.

    The issue was not resolved, but probably as most of you said, It could be a Network (VPN) issue.

    Thank you.

Azadsingh's avatar
Azadsingh
Icon for Resolver II rankResolver II
2 months ago

I've run into similar issues before, and in my case the problem wasn't the table size but the connection itself.

A few things I'd check:

  • Verify whether Query Folding is taking place. If Power Query is processing data locally instead of pushing the query to Snowflake, performance can degrade significantly.

  • If you're using value.nativequery, try comparing the performance with the standard Snowflake connector to see if there's any difference.

  • Check whether the Snowflake warehouse is resuming from a suspended state each time Power BI connects. Even small queries can appear slow if the warehouse needs to wake up.

  • If you're connecting through an on-premises gateway, test the same dataset directly from Power BI Desktop on the same network. A slow gateway or network latency can have a noticeable impact.

  • Make sure you're using the latest Snowflake connector and Power BI Desktop version, as performance improvements are included regularly.

  • Use Performance Analyzer in Power BI Desktop and Query Diagnostics in Power Query to identify whether the delay is occurring during connection, query execution, or data transformation.

Since you mentioned the issue occurs in both Desktop and the Service, I'd also look at network latency, gateway configuration (if applicable), and connector settings rather than the Snowflake database itself. If queries are consistently fast in Snowflake but slow only from Power BI, the bottleneck is often somewhere between the two rather than in the database.

 

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