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Virtual Table lookup column saves as No Name

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Posted on by ctedesco3307

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Hi All - I have seen a few posts on this but none have a resolution....so I'll try w my intel. I have 2 lookup columns from separate virtual tables in my form, and both are behaving this way.

I look up my value - I see it - i select it -

I save it - it goes to No name

If I click on No Name I get to the related tables main information form for about one second that shows the right value,

then it goes to this error

But the guid is here and as a unique identifier

If I do enter the guid as a filter from the column tables I don't get any results back either though. I don't see what I am missing however....

Thank you in advance

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Microsoft Dataverse with Power Apps

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Haque 2,532 on at

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Hi @ctedesco3307,

The error message you’re seeing—“The specified domain does not exist or cannot be contacted” along with “Item with id '...' does not exist”—typically indicates that the lookup or related record your app or form is trying to reference no longer exists or is inaccessible. This often happens after saving a lookup field with an incomplete or invalid reference, causing Power Apps or Dataverse to fail resolving the record properly.

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ctedesco3307 829 on at

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@Haque What do I do? the table is there, the column is there, the guid is there? How do I resolve the problem?

Thank you for helping

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11manish 2,126 on at

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The “No Name” issue occurs because Dataverse successfully stores the GUID of the selected record from the virtual table, but fails to retrieve the display name

afterward.

This is typically due to limitations or misconfiguration in the virtual table provider, such as missing primary name mapping, lack of support for retrieving records

by GUID, or filtering limitations.

To fix it, ensure your provider supports retrieval by ID, properly configure the primary name column, and verify that queries using the GUID return results.

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ctedesco3307 829 on at

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@11manish - Thank you. Could you elaborate on this? I'm getting the data from a SQL Server table.

What are the settings that need to be in place to support retrieval by ID?

When I make my virtual table, I have a 5 digit number set as the name column. I can't use UID, its a GUID and generates the "something went wrong" error after the table is created, The Vendor ID is what I want the user to lookup on.

With this set up the table in dataverse ends up looking like this

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11manish 2,126 on at

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For SQL-based virtual tables in Dataverse, lookups require a true primary key that Dataverse can use to retrieve records by ID.

This must be a unique, non-null GUID column. Your current issue occurs because the system is not properly using a GUID as the primary key, causing Dataverse to

fail when retrieving the record after save, resulting in “No Name.”

The correct approach is to ensure your SQL table has a uniqueidentifier column (GUID) as the primary key, map that as the virtual table key, and use your Vendor

ID as the primary name (display) column.

Without a valid GUID-based key that supports retrieval by ID, lookups in virtual tables will not work reliably.

Recommendation

For anything business-critical:

Avoid virtual tables for lookups

→ Sync SQL → Dataverse table

→ Use native lookup

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ctedesco3307 829 on at

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@11manish
@11manish Thank you again - I'll circle back with the team on the GUID config. In you recommendations here, it sounds like Virtual Tables might not be the best way to go, can you share other options for Sync SQL → Dataverse table.

What's the best approach to make sure all the updates that are in the SQL table are visible in Dataverse? I was trying to not duplicate data across environments but if I have to have a real table in Dataverse what's the best approach to make sure the table is always current?

Last question I promise! thank you

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11manish 2,126 on at

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Hi ctedesco3307 ,

Understand your concern.

But virtual tables are not ideal for scenarios requiring reliable lookups and relationships.

The recommended approach is to synchronize SQL data into a physical Dataverse table using a delta-based sync pattern.

This can be implemented using Power Automate for simpler scenarios, or Azure Data Factory / Azure Functions for scalable enterprise solutions.

By using an alternate key (such as VendorID), you can safely perform upserts to keep Dataverse in sync without duplicates.

Although this introduces data duplication, it enables better performance, reliability, and full platform capabilities

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