Manually refresh dynamic tables¶

Manual refresh of dynamic tables with the scheduler enabled¶

You can manually refresh a dynamic table to include the latest data without waiting for the next scheduled refresh. This is useful for one-time updates or when a table has a large target lag and the next refresh occurs much later.

Tip

Avoid frequent manual refreshes on dynamic tables with downstream dynamic tables that are expected to refresh according to target lag. These kinds of manual refreshes can cause scheduled refreshes to skip and prevent downstream tables from updating.

To manually refresh, use the ALTER DYNAMIC TABLE … REFRESH command or Snowsight as shown in the following steps:

ALTER DYNAMIC TABLE my_dynamic_table REFRESH

For situations that require precise refresh timing, such as aligning refreshes with external system schedules or batch processing windows, you can use a task with a CRON expression to trigger the refresh.

For example:

-- Create the task
CREATE TASK my_dt_refresh_task
  WAREHOUSE = my_wh
  SCHEDULE = 'USING CRON 0 0 * * * America/Los_Angeles' -- Example: daily at midnight PST
  COMMENT = 'Daily 5pm PT manual refresh of my_dynamic_table'
  AS
    ALTER DYNAMIC TABLE my_dynamic_table REFRESH;

-- Enable the task
ALTER TASK my_dt_refresh_task RESUME;

-- Show the task
SHOW TASKS LIKE 'my_dt_refresh_task';

+------------+-----------------+-------------------------------------+---------------+-------------+--------------+-------------------------------------------------+-----------|-------------------------------------------+------------------+---------+----------------------------------------------+-----------+-----------------------------+-------------------+-------------------------------|-------------------+-----------------+--------+---------------------+-----------------------+---------------------+-----------------+----------------------------+-----------------+
| CREATED_ON | NAME            | ID                                  | DATABASE_NAME | SCHEMA_NAME | OWNER        | COMMENT                                         | WAREHOUSE | SCHEDULE                                  | [ ] PREDECESSORS | STATE   | DEFINITION                                   | CONDITION | ALLOW_OVERLAPPING_EXECUTION | ERROR_INTEGRATION | LAST_COMMITTED_ON             | LAST_SUSPENDED_ON | OWNER_ROLE_TYPE | CONFIG | TASK_RELATIONS      | LAST_SUSPENDED_REASON | SUCCESS_INTEGRATION | SCHEDULING_MODE | TARGET_COMPLETION_INTERVAL | EXECUTE_AS_USER |
|------------+-----------------+-------------------------------------+---------------+-------------+--------------+-------------------------------------------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------+------------------+---------+----------------------------------------------+-----------+-----------------------------+-------------------+-------------------------------+-------------------+-----------------+--------+---------------------+-----------------------+---------------------+-----------------+----------------------------+-----------------|
| 2025-10-02 | DT_REFRESH_TASK | 01bf6f0d-690f-f373-0000-000000025e3d| mydb          | my_schema   | ACCOUNTADMIN | Daily 5pm PT manual refresh of my_dynamic_table | mywh      | USING CRON 0 17 * * * America/Los_Angeles | []               | Started | ALTER DYNAMIC TABLE my_dynamic_table REFRESH | null      | false                       | null              | 2025-10-02 05:08:52.897 +0000 | null              | ROLE            | null   | {"Predecessors":[]} | null                  | null                | null            | null                       | null            |
+------------+-----------------+-------------------------------------+---------------+-------------+--------------+-------------------------------------------------+-----------|-------------------------------------------+------------------+---------+----------------------------------------------+-----------+-----------------------------+-------------------+-------------------------------|-------------------+-----------------+--------+---------------------+-----------------------+---------------------+-----------------+----------------------------+-----------------+

For most cases, Snowflake recommends using target lag, which optimizes refresh frequency and can reduce costs compared to fixed CRON schedules that might run unnecessarily.

Manual refresh of dynamic tables with the scheduler disabled¶

Dynamic tables with the SCHEDULER attribute set to DISABLE can only be refreshed manually.

This type of manual refresh refreshes only that dynamic table. It doesn’t cascade to any upstream dynamic tables, regardless of their scheduler state.

In the DYNAMIC_TABLE_REFRESH_HISTORY output, the REFRESH_TRIGGER value for these refreshes is MANUAL. No SCHEDULED entries are generated for dynamic tables with SCHEDULER set to DISABLE.

This behavior allows external orchestrators, such as dbt, to issue one manual refresh per dynamic table without triggering upstream refreshes.

To disable the scheduler and then manually refresh a dynamic table, use the ALTER DYNAMIC TABLE command as shown in the following steps:

Disable the scheduler:

ALTER DYNAMIC TABLE my_dynamic_table SET SCHEDULER = DISABLE

Manually refresh the dynamic table:
```
ALTER DYNAMIC TABLE my_dynamic_table REFRESH
```