How to select a region (location) for the BigQuery dataset created by Able CDP

Able CDP does not specify a region when it creates a BigQuery dataset. The location is decided entirely by Google Cloud, based on the default location configured for your Google Cloud project. So if a dataset ended up outside the US multi-region, it's because the project's default location was set to something else at the time the connection was established.

A BigQuery dataset's region cannot be changed after it is created. This is a Google BigQuery limitation, not an Able CDP one. The only way to "move" a dataset is to delete it and create it again in the desired location.

The good news is that the Able CDP dataset in BigQuery is a replica of the data Able already stores. Deleting and recreating it does not lose anything — Able repopulates the new dataset with your full historical event data (PageView, Lead, Schedule, Purchase and all other events).

Step 1. Set the default location for your Google Cloud project

Before recreating the dataset, change the default region so that the new dataset is created in the right place. See Google's guide on specifying a default configuration for BigQuery.

You can set it from the BigQuery query editor with:

ALTER PROJECT `your-project-id`
SET OPTIONS (
  `default_location` = 'US'
);

Use US or EU for multi-regions, or a specific region such as europe-west1. Note that configuration changes can take up to 10 minutes to propagate — wait for that before recreating the connection, otherwise the dataset may again be created in the old location.

Changing this setting affects only new datasets. Existing datasets keep the location they were created in.

Step 2. Recreate the dataset

1. Open Able Dashboard and go to the BigQuery tab. Press the Delete ("X") button next to the established connection to disconnect Able from BigQuery. This stops real-time updates to the dataset.
2. Open the BigQuery Console, press the three dots next to the dataset you just disconnected, and select Delete.
3. Press Connect in the BigQuery tab of Able Dashboard to re-establish the connection. Able recreates the dataset — now in the new default location — and backfills it with historical data.

A full sync normally takes under one hour, after which the entire dataset is available again in BigQuery with the latest schema. The only "downtime" is this backfill window: queries against the dataset will return incomplete results until the sync finishes, so it's best to schedule the switch outside your reporting window.

Alternative: pre-create the dataset yourself

If you'd rather not change the project-wide default — for example, because other workloads in the same project intentionally live in another region — you can control the location per dataset instead:

1. Disconnect Able from BigQuery and delete the existing dataset, as described above.
2. In the BigQuery Console, manually create a dataset with exactly the same name (the funnel UUID with underscores, e.g. ee8346a9_396f_4d47_9011_6e1152381aa3), choosing the desired location in the Data location field.
3. Reconnect Able. Able will use the existing dataset and populate it, keeping the location you selected.

How to check which region your datasets are in

In the BigQuery Console, click a dataset and look at Data location in the details pane. From the command line, bq show --format=prettyjson your-project-id:dataset_name returns the same information in the location field.

You can also query INFORMATION_SCHEMA, keeping in mind that this view is scoped to a single region — you have to query each region you want to check:

SELECT schema_name, location, creation_time
FROM `your-project-id`.`region-us`.INFORMATION_SCHEMA.SCHEMATA;

Swap region-us for region-eu, region-europe-west1 and so on to find datasets that are not where you expect. If you run multiple funnels, it's worth auditing all of them in one pass rather than discovering mismatches one failed query at a time.

Why the error appears

BigQuery cannot join tables across locations. If your reporting queries run in the US multi-region and join the Able dataset against your own shared tables there, a dataset in any other location produces:

Not found: Dataset your-project:dataset_name was not found in location US

This is purely a location problem — the dataset and its data are intact, they simply aren't reachable from a job running in another region.

Summary

Who chooses the region	Google Cloud, from your project's default BigQuery location — Able CDP does not specify one
Can it be changed in place	No — a dataset's region is fixed at creation
How to move it	Change the project default location → disconnect Able → delete the dataset → reconnect
Per-dataset alternative	Delete the dataset, manually create one with the same name in the desired location, then reconnect
Data loss	None — Able backfills full event history, typically in under an hour

For the dataset structure and example reporting queries, see the BigQuery Connector documentation.