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legacy GA

Legacy change data feed

Legacy change data feed is legacy, replaced by Automatic change data feed (legacy since September 2026).

Change data feed Legacy change data feed Automatic change data feed

The per-table change data feed for Delta Lake, which materializes change events at write time once delta.enableChangeDataFeed is set on the table, and which the docs now file as legacy with a recommendation to migrate.

  • It did the work at write time, so every MERGE and UPDATE paid a tax to record what changed - the September 2026 release note prices dropping that tax at about 15% on those operations.
  • Switch it off for an afternoon and it cannot give that afternoon back - the docs warn that any interval it was turned off is simply not queryable through it.
  • It never made it to Iceberg. Change data feed is not part of the Apache Iceberg spec, so this version stayed Delta-only to the end.

Limitations: Delta Lake only, turned on table by table with delta.enableChangeDataFeed. A read cannot span an interval when the feed was off, nor a non-additive schema change such as a column rename, drop, or type change, and a table cannot use it together with automatic change data feed.

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Category
Data engineering
Deprecated
September 2026
Also known as
legacy CDF, Change data feed, delta.enableChangeDataFeed
Verified
2026-09-10

Sources

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