Orphaned Data Quality Reference Blocking Data Product Deletion in Microsoft Purview

Question

As the Purview administrator for my organization, I cannot delete a Data Product because it is associated with a table that no longer exists in the Data Map. The portal shows the asset with a warning icon, but returns AxiosError: 404 when trying to remove it manually. Both the table and the Data Product remain blocked.

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What I have already done**

1. ✅ Deleted the asset from Data Map via REST API: DELETE /catalog/api/atlas/v2/entity/guid/{guid}

2. ✅ Deleted all associated Data Quality rules

3. ❌ Portal removal attempt: AxiosError: Request failed with status code 404 4. ❌ Relationship deletion via REST API: 404 Not Found

Current state The asset still appears in the Data Product UI with warning icon, blocking Data Product deletion. Both portal and API return 404, indicating orphaned backend reference. Need help with: 1. How to clean this orphaned reference without Microsoft support? 2. Specific endpoint to remove broken Data Product relationships?

Answer 1

Hello,

the behavior you are seeing is a known issue in Microsoft Purview when a Data Product maintains a dangling reference to an asset that has already been deleted from the Data Map. The warning icon and the AxiosError 404 confirm that the backend catalog entity no longer exists, but the Data Product still holds a relationship pointer to that GUID. That is why both the portal and the API return 404 – the reference is orphaned, but the Data Product cannot be removed until the relationship is cleaned up.

Unfortunately, there is no public REST endpoint that allows you to directly purge broken relationships from a Data Product. The /catalog/api/atlas/v2/entity/guid/{guid} call correctly deletes the asset, but the Data Product object itself is stored separately in the Purview Data Product service, which does not expose a documented API for relationship cleanup. The only supported way to resolve this state is through Microsoft support, who can run a backend purge job to remove orphaned references.

From an administrative perspective, you can confirm the state by querying the Data Product via the Purview Data Product API (/dataproducts/{id}) and checking the resources array. You will see the stale GUIDs still listed. Since the referenced entity no longer exists in Atlas, any attempt to delete the relationship will fail with 404. There is no supported self-service endpoint to force removal.

In short: you have already done the correct steps (entity deletion, rule cleanup). The remaining orphaned reference cannot be removed without backend intervention. The best practice is to open a support ticket with Microsoft Purview support, provide the Data Product ID and the orphaned GUIDs, and request a backend purge. Until then, the Data Product will remain blocked in the UI.

I hope you've found something useful here. If it helps you get more insight into the issue, it's appreciated to accept the answer. Should you have more questions, feel free to leave a message. Have a nice day!

Domic Vo.