apache/iceberg · error · NoSuchTableException

No such table '%s'

Error message

No such table '%s'

What it means

In NessieTableOperations.doRefresh, if getContent itself throws NessieNotFoundException and the table had already been loaded, the code rethrows it as NoSuchTableException('No such table %s'). This differs from 2226 in that the failure came from the Nessie API call (e.g. the reference or hash was not found during content fetch), not from a null content result.

Source

Thrown at nessie/src/main/java/org/apache/iceberg/nessie/NessieTableOperations.java:97

    String metadataLocation = null;
    Reference reference = client.getRef().getReference();
    try {
      Content content = client.getApi().getContent().key(key).reference(reference).get().get(key);
      LOG.debug("Content '{}' at '{}': {}", key, reference, content);
      if (content == null) {
        if (currentMetadataLocation() != null) {
          throw new NoSuchTableException("No such table '%s' in '%s'", key, reference);
        }
      } else {
        this.table =
            content
                .unwrap(IcebergTable.class)
                .orElseThrow(() -> new NessieContentNotFoundException(key, reference.getName()));
        metadataLocation = table.getMetadataLocation();
      }
    } catch (NessieNotFoundException ex) {
      if (currentMetadataLocation() != null) {
        throw new NoSuchTableException(ex, "No such table '%s'", key);
      }
    }
    refreshFromMetadataLocation(
        metadataLocation,
        null,
        2,
        location ->
            NessieUtil.updateTableMetadataWithNessieSpecificProperties(
                TableMetadataParser.read(fileIO, location),
                location,
                table,
                key.toString(),
                reference));
  }

  @Override
  protected void doCommit(TableMetadata base, TableMetadata metadata) {
    boolean newTable = base == null;

View on GitHub (pinned to 86d9c8fc54)

Solutions

1. Re-acquire the table through a catalog bound to a live ref.
2. Verify the ref exists and recreate/re-pin it if deleted (catalog.setRef or fix config).
3. Catch NoSuchTableException (with cause NessieNotFoundException) in callers and reload rather than retrying blindly.
4. Avoid deleting branches/refs that active jobs reference.

Example fix

// before
try { table.refresh(); } catch (RuntimeException e) { /* may be this NoSuchTableException */ }
// after
try {
  table.refresh();
} catch (NoSuchTableException e) {
  table = catalog.loadTable(id); // re-resolve against a live ref
}

try { nessieApi.content().key(key).reference(ref).get(); } catch (NessieNotFoundException e) { /* ref gone; re-resolve */ }

try { table.refresh(); } catch (NoSuchTableException e) { if (e.getCause() instanceof NessieNotFoundException) { table = catalog.loadTable(key); } else { throw e; } }

When it happens

Trigger: Content fetch against a ref that is deleted/expired mid-refresh while the table is already loaded; concurrent branch deletion during a read; hash-specific lookups after ref rewind.

Common situations: Ephemeral branch removed while a Spark/Flink job is mid-scan; Nessie GC pruning; ref switched underneath a long-running operation.

Understand the failure class

Background: "Not found" and "does not exist" errors: why "Task not found", "No such folder", and "Can't find" fire when a lookup comes back empty — this error's family across 14 libraries.

Related errors

• Table does not exist: %s
• No such table '%s' in '%s'
• Cannot find Glue table %s after refresh, maybe another proce
• Table does not exist: %s
• Nessie ref '%s' does not exist

AI-assisted analysis of apache/iceberg@86d9c8fc54 (2026-09-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/74ab94936475b16d. Report an issue: GitHub.