Error messages

This document describes error messages that you might encounter when working with BigQuery, including HTTP error codes and suggested troubleshooting steps.

For more information about query errors, see Troubleshoot query errors.

For more information about streaming insert errors, see Troubleshoot streaming inserts.

Error table

Responses from the BigQuery API include an HTTP error code and an error object in the response body. An error object is typically one of the following:

An errors object, which contains an array of ErrorProto objects.
An errorResults object, which contains a single ErrorProto object.

The Error message column in the following table maps to the reason property in an ErrorProto object.

The table does not include all possible HTTP errors or other networking errors. Therefore, don't assume that an error object is present in every error response from BigQuery. In addition, you might receive different errors or error objects if you use the Cloud Client Libraries for the BigQuery API. For more information, see BigQuery API Client Libraries.

If you receive an HTTP response code that doesn't appear in the following table, the response code indicates an issue or an expected result with the HTTP request. Response codes in the 5xx range indicate a server-side error. If you receive a 5xx response code, then retry the request later. In some cases, a 5xx response code might be returned by an intermediate server such as a proxy. Examine the response body and response headers for details about the error. For a full list of HTTP response codes, see HTTP response codes.

If you use the bq command-line tool to check job status, the error object is not returned by default. To view the error object and the corresponding reason property that maps to the following table, use the --format=prettyjson flag. For example, bq --format=prettyjson show -j <job id>. To view verbose logging for the bq tool, use --apilog=stdout. To learn more about troubleshooting the bq tool, see Debugging.

Error message	HTTP code	Description	Troubleshooting
accessDenied	403	This error returns when you try to access a resource such as a dataset, table, view, or job that you don't have access to. This error also returns when you try to modify a read-only object.	Contact the resource owner and request access to the resource for the user identified by the `principalEmail` value in the error's audit log.
backendError	500 or 503	This error returns when there is a temporary server failure such as a network connection problem or a server overload.	In general, wait a few seconds and retry. If issue recurred, retry with exponential backoff. However, there are two special cases for troubleshooting this error: `jobs.get` calls and `jobs.insert` calls. `jobs.get` calls If you received a 503 error when polling `jobs.get`, wait a few seconds and poll again. If the job completes but includes an error object that contains `backendError`, the job failed. You can safely retry the job without concerns about data consistency. `jobs.insert` calls If you receive this error when making a `jobs.insert` call, it's unclear if the job succeeded. In this situation, you'll need to retry the job.
badRequest	400	The error `'UPDATE or DELETE statement over table <project.dataset.table> would affect rows in the streaming buffer, which is not supported'` can occur when some recently streamed rows in a table might not be available for DML operations (`DELETE`, `UPDATE`,`MERGE`), typically for a few minutes, but in rare cases, up to 90 minutes. For more information, see Streaming data availability and DML Limitations.	To see if data is available for table DML operations, check the `tables.get` response for the streamingBuffer section. If the streamingBuffer section is absent, then table data is available for DML operations. You can also use the `streamingBuffer.oldestEntryTime` field to identify the age of records in the streaming buffer.
billingNotEnabled	403	This error returns when billing isn't enabled for the project.	Enable billing for the project in the Google Cloud console.
billingTierLimitExceeded	400	This error returns when the value of `statistics.query.billingTier` for an on-demand Job exceeds 100. This occurs when on-demand queries use too much CPU relative to the amount of data scanned. For instructions on how to inspect job details, see Managing jobs.	This error most often results from executing inefficient cross-joins, either explicitly or implicitly, for example due to an inexact join condition. These types of queries are not suitable for on-demand pricing due to high resource consumption, and in general they may not scale well. You can either optimize the query or switch to use the capacity-based (slots) pricing model to resolve this error. For information about optimizing queries, see Avoiding SQL anti-patterns.
blocked	403	This error returns when BigQuery has temporarily denylisted the operation you attempted to perform, usually to prevent a service outage.	Contact support for more information.
duplicate	409	This error returns when trying to create a job, dataset, or table that already exists. The error also returns when a job's `writeDisposition` property is set to `WRITE_EMPTY` and the destination table accessed by the job already exists.	Rename the resource you're trying to create, or change the `writeDisposition` value in the job.
internalError	500	This error returns when an internal error occurs within BigQuery.	Wait according to the back-off requirements described in the BigQuery Service Level Agreement, then try the operation again. If the error continues to occur, contact support or file a bug using the BigQuery issue tracker. You can also reduce the frequency of this error by using Reservations.
invalid	400	This error returns when there is any type of invalid input other than an invalid query, such as missing required fields or an invalid table schema. Invalid queries return an `invalidQuery` error.
invalidQuery	400	This error returns when you attempt to run an invalid query.	Check your query for syntax errors. The query reference contains descriptions and examples of how to construct valid queries.
invalidUser	400	This error returns when you attempt to schedule a query with invalid user credentials.	Refresh the user credentials, as explained in Scheduling queries.
jobBackendError	400	This error returns when the job was created successfully, but failed with an internal error. You might see this error in `jobs.query` or `jobs.getQueryResults`.	Retry the job with a new `jobId`. If the error continues to occur, contact support.
jobInternalError	400	This error returns when the job was created successfully, but failed with an internal error. You might see this error in `jobs.query` or `jobs.getQueryResults`.	Retry the job with a new `jobId`. If the error continues to occur, contact support.
jobRateLimitExceeded	400	This error returns when the job was created successfully, but failed with a rateLimitExceeded error. You might see this error in `jobs.query` or `jobs.getQueryResults`.	Use exponential backoff to reduce the request rate, and then retry the job with a new `jobId`.
notFound	404	This error returns when you refer to a resource (a dataset, a table, or a job) that doesn't exist, or when the location in the request does not match the location of the resource (for example, the location in which a job is running). This can also occur when using table decorators to refer to deleted tables that have recently been streamed to.	Fix the resource names, correctly specify the location, or wait at least 6 hours after streaming before querying a deleted table.
notImplemented	501	This job error returns when you try to access a feature that isn't implemented.	Contact support for more information.
proxyAuthenticationRequired	407	This error returns between the client environment and the proxy server when the request lacks valid authentication credentials for the proxy server. For more information, see 407 Proxy Authentication Required.	Troubleshooting is specific to your environment. If you receive this error while working in Java, ensure you have set both the `jdk.http.auth.tunneling.disabledSchemes=` and `jdk.http.auth.proxying.disabledSchemes=` properties with no value following the equal sign.
quotaExceeded	403	This error returns when your project exceeds a BigQuery quota, a custom quota, or when you haven't set up billing and you have exceeded the free tier for queries.	View the `message` property of the error object for more information about which quota was exceeded. To reset or raise a BigQuery quota, contact support. To modify a custom quota, submit a request from the Google Cloud console page. If you receive this error using the BigQuery sandbox, you can upgrade from the sandbox. For more information, see Troubleshooting BigQuery quota errors.
rateLimitExceeded	403	This error returns if your project exceeds a short-term rate limit by sending too many requests too quickly. For example, see the rate limits for query jobs and rate limits for API requests.	Slow down the request rate. If you believe that your project did not exceed one of these limits, contact support. For more information, see Troubleshooting BigQuery quota errors.
resourceInUse	400	This error returns when you try to delete a dataset that contains tables or when you try to delete a job that is currently running.	Empty the dataset before attempting to delete it, or wait for a job to complete before deleting it.
resourcesExceeded	400	This error returns when your job uses too many resources.	This error returns when your job uses too many resources. For troubleshooting information, see Troubleshoot resources exceeded errors.
responseTooLarge	403	This error returns when your query's results are larger than the maximum response size. Some queries execute in multiple stages, and this error returns when any stage returns a response size that is too large, even if the final result is smaller than the maximum. This error commonly returns when queries use an `ORDER BY` clause.	Adding a `LIMIT` clause can sometimes help, or removing the `ORDER BY` clause. If you want to ensure that large results can return, you can set the `allowLargeResults` property to `true` and specify a destination table. For more information, see Writing large query results.
stopped	200	This status code returns when a job is canceled.
tableUnavailable	400	Certain BigQuery tables are backed by data managed by other Google product teams. This error indicates that one of these tables is unavailable.	When you encounter this error message, you can retry your request (see internalError troubleshooting suggestions) or contact the Google product team that granted you access to their data.
timeout	400	The job timed out.	Consider reducing the amount of work performed by your operation so that it can complete within the set limit. See Quotas and Limits.

Sample error response

GET https://bigquery.googleapis.com/bigquery/v2/projects/12345/datasets/foo
Response:
[404]
{
  "error": {
  "errors": [
  {
    "domain": "global",
    "reason": "notFound",
    "message": "Not Found: Dataset myproject:foo"
  }],
  "code": 404,
  "message": "Not Found: Dataset myproject:foo"
  }
}

Authentication errors

Errors thrown by the OAuth token generation system return the following JSON object, as defined by the OAuth2 specification.

{"error" : "description_string"}

The error is accompanied by either an HTTP 400 Bad Request error or an HTTP 401 Unauthorized error. description_string is one of the error codes defined by the OAuth2 specification. For example:

{"error":"invalid_client"}

Review errors

You can use the logs explorer to view authentication errors for specific jobs, users, or other scopes. Below are several examples of logs explorer filters that you can use to review authentication errors.

Search for failed jobs with permission issues in the Policy Denied audit logs:

    resource.type="bigquery_resource"
    protoPayload.status.message=~"Access Denied"
    logName="projects/PROJECT_ID/logs/cloudaudit.googleapis.com%2Fdata_access"

Search for a specific user or service account used for authentication:

    resource.type="bigquery_resource"
    protoPayload.authenticationInfo.principalEmail="EMAIL"

Replace EMAIL with the email address of the user or service account.

Search for IAM policy changes in the Admin Activity audit logs:

    protoPayload.methodName=~"SetIamPolicy"
    logName="projects/PROJECT_ID/logs/cloudaudit.googleapis.com%2Factivity"

Search for changes to a specific BigQuery dataset in the Data Access audit logs:

    resource.type="bigquery_resource"
    protoPayload.resourceName="projects/PROJECT_ID/datasets/DATASET_ID"
    logName=projects/PROJECT_ID/logs/cloudaudit.googleapis.com%2Fdata_access

Replace the following:

PROJECT_ID: the ID of the project containing the resource
DATASET_ID: the ID of the dataset containing the resource

Connectivity error messages

The following table lists error messages that you might see because of intermittent connectivity issues when using the client libraries or calling the BigQuery API from your code:

Error message	Client library or API	Troubleshooting
com.google.cloud.bigquery.BigQueryException: Read timed out	Java	Set a larger timeout value.
Connection has been shutdown: javax.net.ssl.SSLException: java.net.SocketException: Connection reset at com.google.cloud.bigquery.spi.v2.HttpBigQueryRpc.translate(HttpBigQueryRpc.java:115)	Java	Implement a retry mechanism and set a larger timeout value.
javax.net.ssl.SSLHandshakeException: Remote host terminated the handshake	Java	Implement a retry mechanism and set a larger timeout value.
Connection aborted. RemoteDisconnected('Remote end closed connection without response'	Python	Set a larger timeout value.
TaskCanceledException: A task was canceled	.NET library	Increase the timeout value on the client side.

Google Cloud console error messages

The following table lists error messages that you might see while you work in the Google Cloud console.

Error message	Description	Troubleshooting
Unknown error response from the server.	This error displays when the Google Cloud console receives an unknown error from the server; for example, when you click a dataset or other type of link, and the page cannot be displayed.	Switch to your browser's incognito, or private, mode and repeating the action that resulted in the error. If no error results in incognito mode, then the error might be due to a browser extension, such as an ad blocker. Disable your browser extensions while not in incognito mode, and see if that resolves the issue.