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Medium severitydata source

Power BI Refresh Error:
SftpRenameOperationFail

What does this error mean?

ADF could not rename a file on the SFTP server after copy. ADF uses a temp-then-rename pattern — if the rename fails, the file remains with a temporary name.

Common causes

  • 1The SFTP user does not have rename (move) permission on the target directory
  • 2A file with the target name already exists on the SFTP server and the server does not allow overwrite via rename
  • 3The SFTP server does not support atomic rename operations

How to fix it

  1. 1Verify the SFTP user account has write and rename permissions on the target directory.
  2. 2Check if a file with the same destination name already exists and determine if it should be overwritten or handled differently.
  3. 3If rename is not supported by the SFTP server, switch to a different write method or contact the server administrator.

Frequently asked questions

Does this error affect all pipeline runs or just the current one?

Depends on the root cause. A persistent misconfiguration fails every run; a transient issue may resolve on retry. Check the run history.

Can this error appear in Azure Data Factory and Microsoft Fabric pipelines?

Yes — the same connector errors appear in both ADF and Fabric Data Factory pipelines.

How do I see the full error detail for an ADF pipeline failure?

In ADF Monitor, click the failed run, then the failed activity. The detail pane shows the error code, message, and sub-error codes.

Will downstream Power BI datasets be affected when an ADF pipeline fails?

Yes — a dataset refreshing after the pipeline will use stale data or fail if the target table was cleared. The Power BI refresh may succeed while serving wrong data.

Official documentation: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/data-factory/connector-troubleshoot-ftp-sftp-http

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