Noticing that your data is a bit stale? Seeing an alert triangle at the bottom of your dashboard gauges? Datasets saying that data hasn’t synced in over a day? Then your datasets may be having trouble syncing. Here are some tips to help you get them started again.

Note: The following tips may only be performed by Admin users. If you’re an Analyst or a Viewer in your account, please contact an admin to assist you.

1) Check the Datasource Connection

Oftentimes, the datasource itself is the cause. Open the datasource settings and click on Test Connection. If you get an error, then please address that error.

A. API/cloud connections

Sometimes a test connection fails or times out and just gives you a white page. Please ensure the credentials for the account you’re using are correct and that the user has the ability to be used (some connections allow for an account to be temporarily suspended)

B. Agent connections

Many agent connection issues are addressed in this document: Common Agent Connectivity Issues. There is also the possibility that the SQL user being used to connect to the database is erroring out. Please make sure that the password is still valid and that the user is not being deleted or suspended. Here are documents to help you verify the SQL user: How To Add a SQL User or How To Setup A SQL User

2) Force Sync the Dataset

If everything with the datasource comes back fine, go to the dataset’s page. There is a blue sync button there. Press it to initiate a sync. If the time doesn’t update in 10-15 minutes, then there’s probably an issue with the dataset.

A. Default Datasets

• Default datasets can fail with a "timeout error" if there’s an overload of data that is being queried.  This is done to protect the SQL database. 
• Default datasets can also fail to sync if the BrightGauge agent is unavailable.
• In either case, please reach out to support so we can investigate or re-initiate syncing

B. Custom Datasets

The #1 cause for custom datasets not syncing is because they lack a unique identifier. Please make sure whatever field you’re setting as id is truly unique. If it’s a field from the database that you’re copying, look at using the concat function in SQL to combine multiple fields to create a new unique identifier. More tips on this can be found in point 1 here: Dataset Requirements

Timeout errors can happen when the dataset is syncing, but not when first building it. We wish there was a better way to notify you of this error and we hope to have something soon, but in any case, if you’re confident in the unique identifier, please contact Support by selecting Help > Open a Ticket from the top menu bar.

C. Dropbox Datasets

If your dataset is a CSV file from dropbox, open the dataset’s page and then go to step 2 to check the field types.  Often times a field formatting can be off and the field type then gets conflicted which you’ll see on that page.

For a breakdown of common dataset errors please refer to the following article:

• Common Dataset Errors

If after checking the datasource and the dataset, something still seems off, then please lcontact Support by selecting Help > Open a Ticket from the top menu bar. We’re here to help you!