M evaluation memory error when using Shareable Cloud Connection to Snowflake with Key Pair authentic

[hadesian]

We’re seeing a critical issue when using Shareable Cloud Connections to Snowflake with Key Pair authentication in Power BI Service.

Even though our dataset contains no Power Query transformations at all (only direct connections to Snowflake views), refresh fails with:

"The M evaluation exceeded the memory limit. To address the issue consider optimizing the M expressions, reducing the concurrency of operations that are memory intensive or upgrading to increase the available memory. Container exited unexpectedly with code 0x0000DEAD. PID: 11012. Used features: Adbc.DataSource/ADBC Snowflake Driver - Go/(unknown or development build)/Snowflake/v1.17.0."

What’s interesting:

1. When using Shareable Cloud Connection + Key Pair, the service switches to the ADBC Snowflake Driver (GO). Small datasets refresh successfully but larger datasets fail with the memory error above.

2. If we switch the same connection to OAuth2, Power BI Service uses the ODBC driver instead — and then everything works perfectly, including large datasets.

3. We can’t use OAuth2 for production because it forces us to authenticate with a personal Snowflake user, not a service principal. Key Pair is required for enterprise scenarios.

This looks like an issue with the GO-based ADBC driver used behind Shareable Cloud Connections, or a limitation/regression in how Power BI Service handles that connection type during refresh.

Nothing in our setup justifies a memory-limit failure — again, we have zero M transformations, only queries against Snowflake views.

Questions:

• Is this a known issue with the GO ADBC Snowflake driver inside Shareable Cloud Connections?

• Is there a way to force Power BI to use the ODBC driver with Key Pair authentication?

• Are there upcoming fixes or guidance for enterprise authentication scenarios?

Any help or clarification would be greatly appreciated.

[v-pgoloju]

Hi @hadesian,

Hope you’re doing well. Just wanted to check if you have an approximate ETA for raising the support ticket for the Snowflake authentication issue. Please let me know when you get a chance.

Thank you.

[hadesian]

Hi @v-pgoloju actually I have created it this morning. Request ID 2512081420000304

[v-pgoloju]

Hi @hadesian,

Just checking, have you had a chance to open a support ticket, as suggested. If so, we'd love to hear the current status or any updates from that.

If the issue was resolved through the support ticket, it would be great if you could share the solution here as well. It could really help other community members find answers more quickly.

Warm regards,
Prasanna Kumar

[hadesian]

Hi @v-pgoloju not yet as this was last step in our project and we have to go live immediately, so as a temporary solution we used basic auth for snowflake. I will check when I will have more time, I mean create support ticket. 

[v-pgoloju]

Hi @hadesian,

If the issue still persists, I’d recommend raising a support ticket with Microsoft. The support team can look into the backend and provide more in-depth assistance tailored to your environment.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/support/create-support-ticket

Thanks & regards,

Prasanna Kumar

[hadesian]

Hi @v-pgoloju ok thanks man!

[hadesian]

Thank you @rohit1991, so there is no way how to use key pair now in cloud connection? I mean use ODBC with key pair? Really strange

[rohit1991]

Hii @hadesian 

This is a driver-side limitation with the GO-based ADBC driver used for Key Pair authentication.
Power BI is not misconfigured and your dataset is not exceeding normal limits  the same refresh succeeds with the ODBC driver, which confirms the root cause.

Below Link mentions same thing :

https://www.reddit.com/r/PowerBI/comments/1mquprv/error_when_refreshing_data_via_adbc_snowflake/