apache/iceberg · error · UnsupportedOperationException

Ignoring missing files is not supported

Error message

Ignoring missing files is not supported

What it means

SnapshotTable.ignoreMissingFiles() is a default interface method on the API module that throws UnsupportedOperationException. It signals that the action implementation (a catalog-specific or custom SnapshotTable) does not support skipping data files that disappeared between planning and execution; the default is to fail the snapshot when files are missing. Only implementations that explicitly override this method support lenient behavior.

Source

Thrown at api/src/main/java/org/apache/iceberg/actions/SnapshotTable.java:81

   * service.
   *
   * @param service executor service
   * @return this for method chaining
   */
  default SnapshotTable executeWith(ExecutorService service) {
    throw new UnsupportedOperationException("Setting executor service is not supported");
  }

  /**
   * Enables ignoring {@link java.io.FileNotFoundException} when listing source data files. When
   * enabled, source data files that have disappeared (for example, because a partition directory
   * was removed by concurrent cleanup) are skipped with a warning instead of failing the snapshot.
   * The default is to fail.
   *
   * @return this for method chaining
   */
  default SnapshotTable ignoreMissingFiles() {
    throw new UnsupportedOperationException("Ignoring missing files is not supported");
  }

  /** The action result that contains a summary of the execution. */
  interface Result {
    /** Returns the number of imported data files. */
    long importedDataFilesCount();
  }
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 86d9c8fc54)

Solutions

1. Remove the ignoreMissingFiles() call so the action uses the default fail-on-missing-files behavior
2. Upgrade to a catalog/action implementation that overrides ignoreMissingFiles()
3. Implement ignoreMissingFiles() in the custom SnapshotTable action to set the skip-missing-files flag
4. Ensure concurrent cleanup (expireSnapshots/orphan file removal) is not racing the snapshot import

Example fix

// before
SnapshotTable action = actions.snapshotTable(sourceTable, destIdent).ignoreMissingFiles();
// after
// Only call ignoreMissingFiles if the implementation supports it:
SnapshotTable action = actions.snapshotTable(sourceTable, destIdent);
if (action.supportsIgnoreMissingFiles()) { // or use an upgraded impl
  action = action.ignoreMissingFiles();
}

if (action.getClass().equals(SnapshotTable.class) /* default impl */) {
  throw new IllegalStateException("This SnapshotTable does not support ignoreMissingFiles");
}

try {
  action.ignoreMissingFiles();
} catch (UnsupportedOperationException e) {
  // proceed without lenient missing-file handling or switch implementation
  LOG.warn("ignoreMissingFiles unsupported: {}", e.getMessage());
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling snapshotTable().ignoreMissingFiles() on an implementation that has not overridden the default method, e.g. a custom action or a catalog whose SnapshotTable action does not support the option.

Common situations: Using a catalog connector (e.g. JDBC, Hive, Nessie builds) whose staged snapshot action predates or omits the ignoreMissingFiles capability; running snapshot import while files were deleted by concurrent cleanup and expecting a warning instead of a hard failure.

Understand the failure class

Background: UnsupportedOperationException and "is not supported" errors: when a library deliberately refuses a call — this error's family across 30 libraries.

Related errors

• Can't retrieve values from an empty struct
• Can't modify an empty struct
• %s doesn't implement cleanupLevel
• %s doesn't implement cleanExpiredMetadata
• Does not support schema getter

AI-assisted analysis of apache/iceberg@86d9c8fc54 (2026-09-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/4361c433bb9b2013. Report an issue: GitHub.