What causes Snowflake Fail-Safe Conflict?

Attempting to permanently drop a table that is still within its 7-day Fail-Safe window. UNDROP failing because the name conflicts with an existing table that was re-created after the drop. Recreating a table with the same name within the Fail-Safe window of the dropped table. Attempting to change the DATA_RETENTION_TIME on a table currently in time travel or Fail-Safe state. Billing concern: large tables in Fail-Safe are costing unexpected storage — cannot purge until the window expires

How do I fix Snowflake Fail-Safe Conflict?

Wait for the 7-day Fail-Safe window to expire before recreating a table with the same name. For an UNDROP name conflict, rename or drop the blocking table first. Use `SELECT * FROM SNOWFLAKE.ACCOUNT_USAGE.TABLE_STORAGE_METRICS WHERE FAIL_SAFE_BYTES > 0` to see tables in Fail-Safe. Contact Snowflake support if you need to purge Fail-Safe storage early for compliance or cost reasons. Reduce Fail-Safe period for transient tables: set TABLE_TYPE = TRANSIENT (transient tables have zero Fail-Safe)

Medium severityobject management

Power BI Refresh Error:
Snowflake Fail-Safe Conflict

What does this error mean?

An operation (DROP, UNDROP, or certain ALTER TABLE statements) was blocked because the table is within the Fail-Safe retention period and the operation conflicts with Fail-Safe state.

Common causes

1Attempting to permanently drop a table that is still within its 7-day Fail-Safe window
2UNDROP failing because the name conflicts with an existing table that was re-created after the drop
3Recreating a table with the same name within the Fail-Safe window of the dropped table
4Attempting to change the DATA_RETENTION_TIME on a table currently in time travel or Fail-Safe state
5Billing concern: large tables in Fail-Safe are costing unexpected storage — cannot purge until the window expires

How to fix it

1Wait for the 7-day Fail-Safe window to expire before recreating a table with the same name
2For an UNDROP name conflict, rename or drop the blocking table first
3Use `SELECT * FROM SNOWFLAKE.ACCOUNT_USAGE.TABLE_STORAGE_METRICS WHERE FAIL_SAFE_BYTES > 0` to see tables in Fail-Safe
4Contact Snowflake support if you need to purge Fail-Safe storage early for compliance or cost reasons
5Reduce Fail-Safe period for transient tables: set TABLE_TYPE = TRANSIENT (transient tables have zero Fail-Safe)

Frequently asked questions

Is Fail-Safe the same as Time Travel?

No — Time Travel (0-90 days, configurable) lets you query or restore data yourself. Fail-Safe is an additional 7-day period after Time Travel expires, managed entirely by Snowflake and not accessible to end users without a support ticket.