Internal User unable to connect to a Semantic Model

Thankyou Shai_Karmani and cengizhanarslan for your responses.

Hi darentengmfs,

Based on our understanding, the App (Build) permission alone may not make the semantic model discoverable in Power BI Desktop.

Kindly verify that the user has direct Build permission assigned on the semantic model itself, as permissions inherited only through the App may not always surface the model correctly in Desktop discovery scenarios.

Ensure that the user is signing into Power BI Desktop with the same organizational account that received the permission. Additionally, ask them to sign out, sign back in, and clear cached permissions before retrying the connection.

Please also check whether the semantic model appears for the user in the Power BI Service first. If the model is not discoverable there, it may not appear in Desktop either. Kindly request your Power BI or Fabric Administrator to verify the relevant tenant settings, such as "Use semantic models across workspaces" in the Admin Portal.

If the issue persists after validating the above points, we kindly request you to open a Microsoft Support ticket for further backend investigation using the link:Microsoft Fabric Support and Status | Microsoft Fabric

Additionally, please refer to the following resources:
Semantic model permissions - Power BI | Microsoft Learn
Build Permission for Shared Semantic Models - Power BI | Microsoft Learn
Manage Semantic Model Access Permissions in Power BI - Power BI | Microsoft Learn

We hope the information provided helps to resolve the issue. Should you have any further queries, please feel free to contact the Microsoft Fabric community.

Thank you.