All Databricks Free Edition Help posts

Re: Databricks Free Edition – AI Playground Empty and system.ai Schema Does Not Exist

Yougasundar — Sat, 07 Nov 2026 01:11:12 GMT

The “no longer available, please use Unity Gateway” message tells you what has changed. The old databricks-* pay-per-token endpoint names are the legacy path. Databricks-hosted models now come through Unity Gateway as model services in Unity Catalog, with names like system.ai.<model>. That is why the Serving endpoints page is empty. This is expected.

system.ai models are not available in every workspace. Region, Unity Catalog and your entitlements all affect what you see. On Free Edition there is one more limit: the limitations page says “Certain models not available” for model serving.

What I would check:

Open the Unity Gateway page in the left menu of your workspace. It lists the models that your user can query. If it is empty, your workspace has no hosted models at the moment.
In Catalog Explorer, open the system catalog and look for the ai schema. You can also run SHOW SCHEMAS IN system.
If you can see a model, test it in the SQL editor with ai_query, for example SELECT ai_query('system.ai.<model-name>', 'Say hello'). Copy the exact model name from the Unity Gateway page. Some models (for example, some GPT models) are not supported in AI Playground, but they still work through ai_query or the API.

If the Unity Gateway page and system.ai are both empty, it is a Free Edition limit, not a mistake in your setup. You can report it through the Free Edition feedback option. If you need hosted models for your learning now, a 14-day trial workspace has system.ai model services available.

Docs: https://docs.databricks.com/aws/en/ai-gateway/query-model-services

Re: Free Edition workspace errors: "Failed to load folder" (GetFilebrowserHeaderFolder una

Ashwin_DSA — Thu, 05 Nov 2026 10:21:15 GMT

Hi @judeantoony,

Workspaces Prefetch error: 500" and the GetFilebrowserHeaderFolder ... temporarily unavailable message are both server-side errors. They come from the backend that serves your workspace, not from your browser. That's why the hard refresh, incognito window, different browser and cleared cache didn't change anything, and there's nothing more to try on your end. Other Free Edition users reported the same Prefetch 500 error around the time you first saw it, so you're not the only one.

Two likely causes for this. The first is a temporary platform problem. If that's what it is, the workspace usually comes back on its own once the service recovers. Your notebooks and data aren't affected by this kind of error.

The second is that the workspace was deactivated. The Free Edition limitations page says Databricks may delete Free Edition accounts that stay inactive for a long time, and accounts can also be removed for breaking the fair usage policy. A two-day break is very unlikely to count as long inactivity. Still, if the error keeps showing up days later, this is worth ruling out.

Check the Databricks status page for any open incidents in your region. Then sign out completely and sign back in from the main Databricks login page instead of the saved workspace URL. See whether your workspace still appears in the workspace picker and whether it opens from there.

If this answer resolves your question, could you mark it as “Accept as Solution”? That helps other users quickly find the correct fix.

Re: Databricks Free Edition – Workspaces Prefetch Error 500 After Gmail Verification

Ashwin_DSA — Thu, 05 Nov 2026 10:20:05 GMT

Hi @Sam92,

If this answer resolves your question, could you mark it as “Accept as Solution”? That helps other users quickly find the correct fix.

Re: Free Edition workspace not loading: "Workspaces Prefetch error: 500"

Ashwin_DSA — Thu, 05 Nov 2026 10:17:33 GMT

Hi @judeantoony,

By the way, you may want to edit your post and remove the full workspace URL, since it includes your workspace ID.

If this answer resolves your question, could you mark it as “Accept as Solution”? That helps other users quickly find the correct fix.

Re: Cluster Creation Failed

ThomazNeto — Tue, 03 Nov 2026 20:33:28 GMT

Hi,

Both checks timing out, the control plane (centralindia.azuredatabricks.net) and www.databricks.com, usually means the cluster subnets have no outbound path at all, not a problem with one specific endpoint. The error codes doc says the same: when multiple components fail together, the root cause is usually shared, like a DNS or firewall change.

Things to check, in this order:

1. Outbound connectivity on the subnets. If your workspace uses VNet injection on a VNet created after March 31, 2026, Azure creates it private by default, with no outbound internet access. The secure cluster connectivity docs say new workspaces after that date need an explicit outbound method, and recommend an Azure NAT gateway attached to both workspace subnets. If you use the default managed VNet, Azure Databricks creates the NAT gateway for you, so skip to the next items.

2. NSG and route tables. Check the NSG outbound rules on both Databricks subnets. If you have a UDR sending traffic to a firewall, make sure the firewall allows outbound HTTPS to the Azure Databricks control plane and that the Azure Databricks service tags route to the internet.

3. DNS. If the VNet uses a custom DNS server, test temporarily with Azure DNS (168.63.129.16) to rule it out.

4. Test from inside the network. Spin up a small VM in the same subnet and run curl against https://centralindia.azuredatabricks.net. If it times out there too, the issue is confirmed to be in the VNet configuration, not in Databricks.

If all of that checks out and it still fails, the doc's guidance is to open a support case.

Docs:
Classic compute termination error codes (network health check section): https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/databricks/compute/troubleshooting/cluster-error-codes
Secure cluster connectivity and NAT gateway: https://learn.microsoft.com/azure/databricks/security/secure-cluster-connectivity

Cluster Creation Failed

nrajkumarf3 — Tue, 03 Nov 2026 20:19:03 GMT

Hi Everyone,

I am encountering an issue with Databricks cluster creation and would appreciate your support in resolving it.

During cluster launch, the creation fails with the following network health check error:

Error Details:

- Error Code: X_NHC_CONTROL_PLANE_UNREACHABLE
- Message: Instance failed network health check before bootstrapping with fatal error: X_NHC_CONTROL_PLANE_UNREACHABLE
- Failed Components:
1. centralindia.azuredatabricks.net (Outcome: unreachable, curl: (28) Connection timed out after 10001 milliseconds)
2. www.databricks.com (Outcome: unreachable, curl: (28) Failed to connect to www.databricks.com port 443: Connection timed out)

Could you please assist in checking the network connectivity and control plane reachability for this workspace to resolve this issue?

Please let me know if you need any additional logs or details from my end.

Databricks Free Edition – AI Playground Empty and system.ai Schema Does Not Exist

shiv5 — Tue, 03 Nov 2026 16:18:06 GMT

Hello Databricks Team,

I recently created a new Databricks Free Edition account using my Google account and also completed LinkedIn identity verification.

I am learning Generative AI and prompt engineering, but I cannot access any foundation models in AI Playground.

Workspace details:

Edition: Databricks Free Edition
Cloud: AWS
Region: us-east-2
Account: Newly created (November 3, 2026)
LinkedIn verification: Completed

Issues observed:

AI Playground does not display any available models. It only shows options to deploy foundation models, create external models, or use Marketplace models.
In Unity Catalog, the system.ai schema is missing.
When trying to access the Llama 3.2 3B Instruct model through Marketplace, I receive: Schema 'system.ai' does not exist.
When opening GPT OSS 120B from AI Gateway, I receive: Endpoint 'databricks-gpt-oss-120b' is no longer available. Please use Unity Gateway.
The Serving endpoints page shows no endpoints.

Could you please confirm:

Are system-provided Foundation Model APIs supported in Databricks Free Edition?
Why is system.ai unavailable in my newly created workspace?
Does my workspace require additional provisioning, permissions, or feature enablement?
What are the exact steps to access a foundation model in AI Playground without upgrading to a paid account?

I have attached screenshots of the errors.

Thank you for your assistance.

Re: Subject: Databricks Free Edition – Workspaces Prefetch error 500 after successful OTP authentica

NinaThoni — Tue, 03 Nov 2026 14:48:25 GMT

Hi there @saranya1234 ,

Thanks for the detailed write-up and for trying all those steps. Your workspace and your projects are safe, and you shouldn't need a new account.

Earlier today a temporary service issue broke sign-in for some workspaces in the AWS US East (Ohio) region. That fits what you saw: the login page works, OTP succeeds, and the workspace fails to load with a 500 error. The issue has since been resolved.

Please try signing in again. If you still get the same error, reply here with the time of your latest attempt and I'll take it from there.

Thanks again for raising it.

Cheers,
Nina

References

Re: Databricks Free Edition – HTTP 400 "Unable to determine workspace context" (browser an

luisconcha — Tue, 03 Nov 2026 14:41:57 GMT

Hi @LingeshK ,

Thank you for your response and for looking into this issue.

I completely understand that Free Edition doesn't include a workspace recovery guarantee, and that's not a problem in my case. Fortunately, all my project code is already stored in Git, so I'm not concerned about losing my notebooks or workspace.

My main concern is being able to create a new Free Edition workspace using the same email address.

To investigate further, I repeated the entire process using another previously registered account (laccdatabricksfree@gmail.com), a different browser, and a fresh private session.

Unfortunately, the same issue occurred again:

Authentication and email verification completed.
Free Edition was selected.
Account setup was completed.
Human verification succeeded.
The process redirected back to the signup page with "error=SIGNUP_ERROR".

The URL also included the following request identifier: "riid=5db16c45b4c2926b5e7001b0965f3a42_04d85a1f2648fb97"

I'm wondering if this might be related to reusing an email address from a previous Free Edition workspace.

Is there perhaps a way to create a fresh workspace using the same email address?

I'd really appreciate any suggestions you might have. I'd love to keep using Databricks without needing a new email address whenever I have to start over 🙂

Thanks again for your help!

Best regards

Luis Alberto

Subject: Databricks Free Edition – Workspaces Prefetch error 500 after successful OTP authentication

saranya1234 — Tue, 03 Nov 2026 09:43:13 GMT

Databricks Free Edition login issue - Workspaces Prefetch error 500

Hello Databricks Team,

I am unable to access my Databricks Free Edition workspace.

My workspace was working properly last week. Today, after entering my Microsoft email and completing OTP verification, I receive this error:

Workspaces Prefetch error: 500

My workspace hostname is:
dbc-1f5f20da-0aa7.cloud.databricks.com

My organization ID is:
7474659238871815

I have tried the following troubleshooting steps:

Microsoft login with OTP.
Email login with OTP.
Chrome Incognito mode.
Clearing browser cache and cookies.
Opening my workspace URL directly.
Testing the workspace using Windows PowerShell.

The login page responds successfully, but after OTP authentication, I receive the same error.

Could you please investigate this issue and help restore access to my existing workspace?

I would prefer to recover my existing workspace rather than create a new account because I have previous learning projects stored there.

Thank you.

Re: Databricks Free Edition – Workspaces Prefetch Error 500 After Gmail Verification

ThomazNeto — Tue, 03 Nov 2026 09:20:35 GMT

Hi Sam,

You're not the only one. Another user reported the same "Workspaces Prefetch error: 500" on Free Edition today: https://community.databricks.com/t5/databricks-free-edition-help/free-edition-workspace-errors-quot-failed-to-load-folder-quot/td-p/175427

status.databricks.com shows no open incident right now and lists Free Edition as operational. Still, two identical reports on the same day point to something on the service side, not your browser or account. Incognito, signing in again and opening the URL directly already rule out the usual browser causes.

About losing your work: the Free Edition docs only mention deleting accounts that are inactive for a prolonged period, and that isn't your case since you use it regularly.

What you can do in the meantime:

1. If you have the Databricks CLI set up for this workspace, try exporting your notebooks. The API may respond even when the UI doesn't:

databricks workspace export-dir /Users/your-email ./backup

2. Subscribe to updates on the status page.

3. Free Edition isn't covered by the Databricks support policy or SLA, so the community is the channel here. If the error page shows a TraceId, add it to this thread, as the other user did.

Docs:
Free Edition limitations (inactivity, support and SLA): https://docs.databricks.com/aws/en/getting-started/free-edition-limitations
Status page: https://status.databricks.com/
CLI workspace commands: https://docs.databricks.com/aws/en/dev-tools/cli/reference/workspace-commands

Re: Free Edition workspace errors: "Failed to load folder" (GetFilebrowserHeaderFolder una

ThomazNeto — Tue, 03 Nov 2026 09:17:04 GMT

Hi,

There's no open incident on status.databricks.com right now, and Free Edition shows as operational in both US East 2 and EU West 1. Both errors are server-side (a 500 and "temporarily unavailable"), so the browser steps you tried were the right ones and there's nothing more to clear on your side. Similar Free Edition reports this year cleared up on their own, for example: https://community.databricks.com/t5/databricks-free-edition-help/databricks-free-edition-suddenly-not-working-and-unable-to-login/td-p/157299

While it's down, try going to Home or opening the SQL editor directly, then navigate to your folder from there. If you have the Databricks CLI set up, you can also try keeping a local copy of your notebooks through the Workspace API, which may respond even when the UI doesn't:

databricks workspace export-dir /Users/your-email ./backup

Free Edition doesn't include formal support, so leaving the TraceId here, like you did, is the best way to get it looked at.

Status page: https://status.databricks.com/
CLI reference: https://docs.databricks.com/aws/en/dev-tools/cli/reference/workspace-commands

Re: Free Edition workspace not loading: "Workspaces Prefetch error: 500"

ThomazNeto — Tue, 03 Nov 2026 09:15:33 GMT

Hi,

I checked status.databricks.com today and there's no open incident. The Free Edition components (US East 2 and EU West 1) show as operational. Both errors you're seeing are server-side (a 500 and "temporarily unavailable"), so the browser steps you already tried are the right ones and there's nothing more to clear on your end.

Similar Free Edition reports this year cleared up without any change on the user side. Two examples: https://community.databricks.com/t5/databricks-free-edition-help/databricks-free-edition-suddenly-not-working-and-unable-to-login/td-p/157299 and https://community.databricks.com/t5/databricks-free-edition-help/notebook-load-failed/td-p/156879

While you wait, a couple of things worth trying:

1. Check if it's only the file browser. Go to Home, or open the SQL editor or Catalog Explorer directly, and then navigate to your folder from there.

2. If you have the Databricks CLI set up for this workspace, try the Workspace API. It may respond even if the UI doesn't, and it lets you keep a local copy of your notebooks:

databricks workspace list /Users/your-email
databricks workspace export-dir /Users/your-email ./backup

Free Edition doesn't include formal support, so keeping the TraceId in this thread, like you did, is the best way to get it looked at. You can also subscribe to updates on the status page.

Status page: https://status.databricks.com/
Workspace CLI commands: https://docs.databricks.com/aws/en/dev-tools/cli/reference/workspace-commands

Free Edition workspace errors: "Failed to load folder" (GetFilebrowserHeaderFolder unavailable)

judeantoony — Tue, 03 Nov 2026 08:47:41 GMT

Hi everyone,

I'm using Databricks Free Edition for a data engineering learning project. After a break of about 2 days, my workspace shows errors:

1. On opening the workspace: "Workspaces Prefetch error: 500"
2. After the page loaded: "Failed to load folder. The service at /graphql/GetFilebrowserHeaderFolder is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later."
TraceId: 00-d881bdc24bbb3449187f548e0ef5982c-7af9c8b2d2d3ae97-00

What I have tried:
- Hard refresh (Ctrl + Shift + R)
- Incognito window
- Different browser
- Clearing cookies and cache for the Databricks site

Workspace URL: https://dbc-9ddc46a1-1851.cloud.databricks.com/?o=7474646620348932
Edition: Free Edition (not Community Edition)
First seen: 03/11/2026 14:15PM IST

Has anyone else seen these errors recently, and is there a known outage or a fix? Thanks in advance.

Free Edition workspace not loading: "Workspaces Prefetch error: 500"

judeantoony — Tue, 03 Nov 2026 08:35:40 GMT

Hello Databricks Free Edition Support Team,

I am unable to use my Databricks Free Edition workspace. When I open it after login, the page shows the error "Workspaces Prefetch error: 500".

Details:
- Workspace URL: https://dbc-9ddc46a1-1851.cloud.databricks.com/?autoLogin=true&account_id=c343d6d0-d0c2-4bba-aa67-cf6f8f23508d&o=7474646620348932
- Account email: info.jude.antony@gmail.com
- Edition: Free Edition (the replacement for Community Edition)
- When it started: I came back to the workspace after about 2 days away, and the error has been there since then. Date and time first seen: 03/11/2026 14:00 IST
- What I see: [only the error page / the error appears after I log in]

What I have already tried:
1. Hard refresh (Ctrl + Shift + R) several times
2. Opening the workspace in an incognito window
3. Trying a different browser
4. Clearing cookies and cache for the Databricks site and logging in again

I am using this workspace for a learning project, so I would like to recover access to my notebooks, tables and dashboard.

Could you please check my workspace and let me know how to fix this?

Databricks Free Edition – Workspaces Prefetch Error 500 After Gmail Verification

Sam92 — Tue, 03 Nov 2026 08:26:51 GMT

Hi everyone,

I have been using Databricks Free Edition regularly for learning and practising Data Engineering. However, since today, I am unable to access my workspace.

I can log in successfully using my Gmail account and complete the email verification process. But immediately after verification, the workspace page fails to load and displays a server error with code 500."Workspaces Prefetch error: 500"

I also tried opening my existing workspace directly in a new browser tab, but I am facing the same issue.

I have already tried the following:

Logging in through Chrome Incognito mode.
Signing in again using my Gmail account.
Completing the email verification process again.
Opening my existing workspace URL directly.

Unfortunately, none of these steps worked.

I have created several notebooks, tables and data engineering projects in this workspace, so I am concerned about losing access to my existing work.

Has anyone faced a similar issue with Databricks Free Edition? Is this a temporary issue, and is there a way to restore access to the existing workspace?

Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Re: Databricks Free Edition – HTTP 400 "Unable to determine workspace context" (browser an

LingeshK — Tue, 03 Nov 2026 00:37:12 GMT

Hi @luisconcha ,

Thank you for your patience and for leaving the workspace as it is while this was looked into.

I want to be clear about where this stands. Free Edition has no support plan or recovery guarantee, so I can't promise that the original workspace will be restored or give you a date. I'd rather tell you that now than leave you waiting on this thread.

So that you aren't blocked, here's what I'd suggest:

1. If you need to keep working, go ahead and create a new Free Edition workspace. You don't need to wait any longer on my account.
2. Recreate the secret and the CLI profile in the new workspace. Your old profile points to a host that no longer resolves, so run `databricks auth login` with the new workspace URL.
3. To protect your work in future, keep your notebooks in a Git folder connected to GitHub or another Git provider. Then a lost workspace costs you a re-clone, not your code.

Let me know if this helps, and again thank you for reporting this to us!

Re: Databricks Free Edition – HTTP 400 "Unable to determine workspace context" (browser an

luisconcha — Fri, 30 Oct 2026 20:15:51 GMT

Hi @LingeshK ,

That's great news! Thank you so much for following up with the Free Edition team and helping investigate this.

I'll leave everything as it is for now and won't create another workspace with the same Google account while the team looks into it. I really appreciate your time and support. I'll keep an eye on this thread for any updates.

Thanks again, and have a great weekend!

Luis Alberto

Re: Databricks Free Edition – HTTP 400 "Unable to determine workspace context" (browser an

LingeshK — Fri, 30 Oct 2026 20:05:52 GMT

Hello @luisconcha ,

Thank you for running every check and posting the results. This narrows down the probable root cause.

You could not have caused this with a secret or a CLI login. Only we can see whether the workspace still exists and which account it belongs to. I have raised it with the team that runs Free Edition, with the host and workspace ID you posted. I will update this thread when I hear back.

Until then, please do not create a new Free Edition workspace with the same Google account. A new workspace would make it harder to tell the old one apart from the new one while the team looks into it.

Thank you,

Re: Databricks Free Edition – HTTP 400 "Unable to determine workspace context" (browser an

luisconcha — Fri, 30 Oct 2026 19:33:11 GMT

Hi @LingeshK ,

Thanks a lot for taking the time to look into this and for the detailed explanation! I really appreciate your help.

I went through the suggested checks, and here's what I found:

1. Sign-in through the browser

I tried signing in at "login.databricks.com" using the same Google account associated with my Free Edition workspace.

I tested both email verification and Google sign-in. In both cases, I was redirected to the product selection/sign-up page, showing the option to create a new Free Edition workspace.

I stopped there to avoid accidentally creating a new workspace.

2. Fresh CLI authentication

I cleared the cached OAuth tokens using:

"databricks auth logout --profile laccdatabricksfree"

The logout completed successfully. I then tried:

"databricks auth login --profile laccdatabricksfree"

Unfortunately, the same HTTP 400 error persists:

Error: fetching oauth config: fetching OAuth endpoints: failed to get OAuth endpoints: http 400: { "error_description": "Invalid request: Unable to determine workspace context for dbc-58ed4126-8b5c.cloud.databricks.com", "error": "invalid_request" }

The CLI fails before opening the browser for authentication.

3. Databricks AWS status

I checked the incident history for October 28-29, filtering by Free Edition. No incidents were listed for that period.

4. Workspace identification

I also checked my browser history and confirmed that the Workspace ID matches the one stored in my ".databrickscfg":

Workspace host: "dbc-58ed4126-8b5c.cloud.databricks.com"
Workspace ID: "7474653000725207"

My browser history also shows several notebook sessions on October 29, before the access issue started.

Since both the browser and CLI are still unable to reach the original workspace, I'm wondering if it may have become detached from my account or if something changed on the workspace side.

I understand that Free Edition doesn't include formal support or recovery guarantees, but is there any way the Databricks team could check whether this workspace still exists and is associated with my account?

Thanks again for your time and guidance!

Luis Alberto