Feature Request: Manual Table Addition Option for Athena Databases

Feature Requests
1

Summary

Provide a “Manually Add Table” option for databases like Amazon Athena, allowing users to explicitly register a table in Metabase if it is not discovered during the automatic sync process.

Problem Statement

When using Amazon Athena as a database in Metabase:

  • A single Athena connection may contain multiple databases (catalogs/schemas).

  • Each database contains multiple tables.

  • Even after running “Rescan database” and “Sync database schema now”, some tables never appear in Metabase.

  • These tables exist and are queryable in Athena directly.

  • However, they are missing from Metabase’s metadata.

This creates issues:

  • Users cannot browse the table in the Data Browser.

  • Fields are not available for Field Filters.

  • Models and GUI queries cannot reference the table.

  • Only raw SQL referencing the fully qualified table name works (and sometimes even that is problematic).

Currently, there is no way to manually force Metabase to recognize a specific table.

Expected Behavior

Add a Manual Table Registration feature with the following flow:

  1. User selects:

    • Database (Athena connection)

    • Schema / Database name (within Athena)

  2. User enters:

    • Table name

  3. User clicks “Add Table”

Metabase then:

  • Runs a lightweight validation query against Athena to verify the table exists.

    • Example:

      SHOW TABLES IN schema_name LIKE 'table_name'

      or

      SELECT * 
FROM schema_name.table_name
LIMIT 1

  • If the table:

    • :white_check_mark: Exists and is not in Metabase metadata → Add it and trigger field scanning.

    • :warning: Already exists in Metabase metadata → Inform the user.

    • :cross_mark: Does not exist → Show “Table not found” message and take no action.

The scan should:

  • Add the table to Metabase metadata.

  • Trigger field detection immediately.

  • Not require a full database resync.

Why This Is Needed

Athena environments commonly have:

  • External tables

  • Glue Catalog inconsistencies

  • Permissions differences

  • Large catalogs where sync may skip or fail on certain tables

  • Tables created after initial database setup

In these cases:

  • Full resync may not resolve missing tables.

  • Waiting for scheduled sync is inefficient.

  • Restarting Metabase is not always practical.

  • There is no user-controlled way to force discovery of a single table.

A manual option would:

  • Save time.

  • Reduce dependency on full database scans.

  • Avoid unnecessary metadata reloads.

  • Provide deterministic control.

Suggested UI Location

Possible placements:

  • Admin → Databases → [Athena DB] → “Add Table Manually”

  • Or inside:

    • Data Model section

    • Schema browser page

With a simple modal:

Database: [Athena Connection ▼]
Schema:   [schema_name ▼]
Table:    [____________]
[Add Table]

Scope

This feature would be especially useful for:

  • Amazon Athena

  • Presto/Trino

  • BigQuery

  • Snowflake

  • Any system where metadata sync may not reliably detect all tables

Impact

  • Improves reliability of Athena integrations.

  • Reduces friction in production environments.

  • Empowers admins to resolve metadata issues without full resync.

  • Reduces support overhead.

  • Provides a clean fallback when automatic sync fails.

Thank you for considering this enhancement. This would significantly improve operational control for Athena users and other cloud data warehouse integrations.