Lost Connection to Metabase While Have Present Tomorrow

25 June 2025 - less than 1 min read time
Tags: Data Backup Plan Looker Studio Metabase

Struggle

  1. For the past 4 days, I had been processing around 600K rows of data to be visualized in a dashboard using Metabase, in preparation for a presentation scheduled for 9 AM the next day.
  2. Just when I had 5 charts left to compile, an issue occurred: Metabase failed to display even a single row, just 2 hours before the end of the workday.
  3. I reported the issue to the CRM Manager, who escalated it to the IT team. The IT team suggested it was due to a row display limit.
  4. However, I couldn’t fully accept that explanation because:
    • Metabase does have a known display limit of 2000 rows, but in this case, not even one row or column appeared.
    • If it were purely a limit issue, I wouldn’t have been able to build the dashboard at all from the start — not just fail at the end.

Solution

  1. With limited time and a presentation deadline looming, I shifted to an alternative approach:
    • I processed and summarized the data using Python.
    • Then I exported the output to a spreadsheet, which I connected to Looker Studio to build the dashboard.
  2. Within under 2 hours, I managed to rebuild 90% of the dashboard.
  3. The remaining 10% was finalized the next morning, roughly 40 minutes before working hours began.
  4. In the end, the dashboard was ready, and the presentation went smoothly.

Final Result