What causes 002003 — object does not exist (UNDROP)?

The Time Travel retention period for the object has expired (default 1 day for Standard edition, up to 90 days for Enterprise). The object was dropped with PURGE, which bypasses Time Travel and makes UNDROP impossible. The object name or schema path in the UNDROP command is misspelled or refers to the wrong database. The object was never dropped — a DROP was not executed and the name simply does not exist. The object was dropped and re-created with the same name, which replaces the Time Travel history

How do I fix 002003 — object does not exist (UNDROP)?

Check Snowflake's dropped object history: SELECT * FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES WHERE DELETED IS NOT NULL.. Verify the retention window: SHOW PARAMETERS LIKE 'DATA_RETENTION_TIME_IN_DAYS' IN TABLE .. If the retention period expired, restore from a Snowflake Fail-Safe or an external backup if available.. For future protection, increase the retention period on critical tables: ALTER TABLE t SET DATA_RETENTION_TIME_IN_DAYS = 14.. Avoid using DROP ... PURGE on production tables unless data must be immediately deleted for compliance reasons.

Medium severityexecution

Power BI Refresh Error:
002003 — object does not exist (UNDROP)

What does this error mean?

An UNDROP TABLE, UNDROP SCHEMA, or UNDROP DATABASE command failed because no dropped version of the object was found within the Snowflake Time Travel retention window. The object was either never dropped, the retention period expired, or the object name is misspelled.

Common causes

1The Time Travel retention period for the object has expired (default 1 day for Standard edition, up to 90 days for Enterprise)
2The object was dropped with PURGE, which bypasses Time Travel and makes UNDROP impossible
3The object name or schema path in the UNDROP command is misspelled or refers to the wrong database
4The object was never dropped — a DROP was not executed and the name simply does not exist
5The object was dropped and re-created with the same name, which replaces the Time Travel history

How to fix it

1Check Snowflake's dropped object history: SELECT * FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES WHERE DELETED IS NOT NULL.
2Verify the retention window: SHOW PARAMETERS LIKE 'DATA_RETENTION_TIME_IN_DAYS' IN TABLE <table_name>.
3If the retention period expired, restore from a Snowflake Fail-Safe or an external backup if available.
4For future protection, increase the retention period on critical tables: ALTER TABLE t SET DATA_RETENTION_TIME_IN_DAYS = 14.
5Avoid using DROP ... PURGE on production tables unless data must be immediately deleted for compliance reasons.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between Time Travel and Fail-Safe in Snowflake?

Time Travel allows self-service recovery of dropped or modified objects within the DATA_RETENTION_TIME_IN_DAYS window. Fail-Safe provides a 7-day disaster-recovery window after Time Travel expires, but recovery requires contacting Snowflake Support and is not self-service.

Can I UNDROP a table that was dropped inside a dropped schema?

Yes — you must UNDROP the schema first, then UNDROP the table within it. Each UNDROP command works at a single object level.