Forum Discussion
Advocate IISemantic Model: Error on refresh and not gracefully
Update on this. We have implemented a solution that is working for anyone else struggling with this.
With the help of some very talented engineers, we impletmented a custom dbt materialization method that no longer drops and creates tables on refresh. Ever since that change, we haven't had any errors with the semantic model refresh.
This adds to the suspision that fabric has some bugs with how it handles the parque file relationships.
I'll mark this as the solution. Happy coding everyone.
Advocate IIIf this helps, here is a list of the times this error has happened since 7/18. As you can see...it's very random and always the same error. The semantic model thinks some object doesn't exist.
Community SupportHi NoDice ,
Thanks for reaching out to the Microsoft fabric community forum.
Once try the below workarounds:
- Implement retry logic with backoff instead of fixed delays.
- Test with a custom semantic model for more refresh control.
- Optionally, disable auto-refresh and trigger manually via pipeline.
If I misunderstand your needs or you still have problems on it, please feel free to let us know.
Best Regards,
Community Support Team
ryan-schofieldThis seems to be an underlying issue of how Direct Lake mode works specifically when referencing a Warehouse. When a table is dropped and recreated, the semantic model occassionally appears to lose the reference for the current Parquet file, which then makes the model inaccessible.
The only way I have found to remedy this is to:
- Drop the table that is creating the error.- Recreate the table.
- Update the model via the edit tables button in the Edit Semantic Model UI.
This is a long-standing bug that pops up with Direct Lake models that reference a warehouse. It seems that Microsoft internally can either not reproduce the bug, or does not have the will to resolve it. It is also frustrating that there appears to be no way to programmatically call the process equivalent to using the Edit Tables menu in the UI.
- NoDice
Thank you for the reply. We have tried all of those ideas. It currently runs with 5 retries. However, what I'm more interested in, is the real problem.
Why does fabric think my tables don't exist? And why does a One Lake semantic model fail critically when it thinks those tables don't exist?
- v-menakakota
Hi NoDice ,
I would also take a moment to thank ryan-schofield , for actively participating in the community forum and for the solutions you’ve been sharing in the community forum. Your contributions make a real difference.
Unfortunately, there’s currently no programmatic equivalent to the Edit Tables refresh in the Semantic Model UI, so the only consistent fix others have found is:- Drop and recreate the table.
- Manually refresh the semantic model via Edit Tables.
Because this behavior is a long-standing bug in Direct Lake mode and there’s no public workaround to programmatically re-bind the schema, I’d recommend to raise Microsoft Support ticket.
Please refer below link on how to raise a contact support or support ticket.
How to create a Fabric and Power BI Support ticket - Power BI | Microsoft Learn
If I misunderstand your needs or you still have problems on it, please feel free to let us know.
Best Regards,
Community Support Team- v-menakakota
Hi NoDice ,
We are following up once again regarding your query. Could you please confirm if the issue has been resolved through the support ticket with Microsoft?
If the issue has been resolved, we kindly request you to share the resolution or key insights here to help others in the community.
Thank you.