Query Activity Timeout / Failure
Triage recurring SQL Query Activity failures before blindly retrying.
Evidence tier describes my hands-on relationship with the content. Official sources describe platform contracts/documentation. Production observations should not automatically be treated as official limits.
Read the activity log
Separate timeout, primary-key, truncation, missing-object and data-type errors.
Check volume and recent growth
A previously healthy query can fail after source or target growth.
Reduce scan scope
Push selective filters early and avoid functions on indexed/filter columns when possible.
Reduce joins
Salesforce publishes a 30-minute hard query runtime limit and soft guidance around joins/data extensions per query.
Split into intermediate tables
Break monolithic transformations into smaller deterministic stages.
Check target action
Add/Update can become expensive as target size grows; verify keys and whether overwrite/staging is more appropriate.
Re-run intentionally
Retry transient platform contention once; recurring timeouts require design changes.