Failure when mounting or accessing Azure Blob storage

Learn how to resolve a failure when mounting or accessing Azure Blob storage from Databricks.

Written by Adam Pavlacka

Last published at: May 31st, 2022

Problem

When you try to access an already created mount point or create a new mount point, it fails with the error:

WASB: Fails with java.lang.NullPointerException

Cause

This error can occur when the root mount path (such as /mnt/) is also mounted to blob storage. Run the following command to check if the root path is also mounted:

%python

dbutils.fs.mounts()

Check if /mnt appears in the list.

Solution

Unmount the /mnt/ mount point using the command:

%python

dbutils.fs.unmount("/mnt")

Now you should be able to access your existing mount points and create new ones.