Oracle Error ORA-39278: Cannot alter table with segments to segment creation deferred.

Oracle Error Message

ORA-39278: Cannot alter table with segments to segment creation deferred.

Reason for the Error

DBMS_METADATA_DIFF was comparing two tables, the first with allocated segments, the second with deferred segments. There is no SQL ALTER statement to change a table which already has segments to segment creation deferred.

Solution

The difference cannot be eliminated with an SQL ALTER statement.