Error [DELTA_UNSUPPORTED_FEATURES_FOR_READ] when accessing a Delta table

Use Databricks Runtime 15.3 or above.

Written by umakanth.charakanam

Last published at: July 7th, 2025

Problem

When attempting to access a Delta table, you receive the following error message.

[DELTA_UNSUPPORTED_FEATURES_FOR_READ] Unsupported Delta read feature: table "<catalog>.<schema>.<table>" requires reader table feature(s) that are unsupported by this version of Databricks: variantType-preview. Please refer to https://docs.databricks.com/delta/feature-compatibility.html for more information on Delta lake feature compatibility. SQLSTATE: 56038

 

Cause

The Delta feature VARIANT is enabled for this table. You can verify this by navigating to the table’s Details tab within the Catalog Explorer. In the Properties section, look for the entry: ‘"feature.variantType-preview": "supported"’

This entry indicates the VARIANT feature is enabled. 

 

Solution

Ensure you are using Databricks Runtime 15.3 or above. For further information, please refer to the Variant support in Delta Lake (AWS | Azure | GCP) documentation.