It is very easy to fall into huge pitfalls when using onelake file explorer and not managing tables efficiently (or sometimes, like in my case, even if you are managing them well but tables are big and have many shortcuts). These issues pop up even when the data isn't synced locally. Just the metadata (parquet/json file names) for the tables can cause problems.
This could be avoided entirely if table metadata could be removed from file explorer.
Onelake file explorer is an essential tool for downloading files from lakehouses, but viewing the parquet and json files is almost never utilized.
These utilities should be separated or the table metadata should be made optional and I would argue off by default.
2 Comments
JP8991Kudo Commander
I want to bump this thread as I think this should be a an option for users.
OneLake File Exploer is a MASSIVE resource hog on Windows 11 while it spends hours initialising when closed and reopened.
No one I know makes any use of the Parquet files and tables that sit behind their Lakehouses, the Files side of OneLake File Explorer is where things are useful.
Please bring in a feature to toggle off the tables side of Lakehouses and also remove all of the other Workspace clutter such as Notebooks etc.- JP8991
Strong support for this idea.
In our use case, OneLake File Explorer is primarily a simple Windows interface for the Lakehouse Files area, not for browsing Delta table internals or other Fabric workspace items.Please expand this into a broader configuration option so admins or users can choose to:
- Show only Lakehouse items
- Optionally show only the Files folder under each Lakehouse
- Hide or exclude Tables metadata/placeholders
- Optionally configure this per workspace or per Lakehouse
This would reduce clutter, lower local metadata overhead, and make the tool much easier for business users and operational teams to use safely.
