Access lakehouse files with restricted access through OneLake Explorer in Windows

[prathijp]

I’ve shared the lakehouse with end users and applied folder-level access restrictions using the OneLake Security RBAC feature within the lakehouse. My expectation was that users would be able to view the folders they have access to via the OneLake Explorer on Windows. However, despite multiple sync attempts and system restarts, the OneLake folders remain blank to them.

I’d like to understand the available options for enabling users to access/download specific OneLake files or folders without granting full access to the entire lakehouse. Additionally, could you please confirm whether sharing the lakehouse is a prerequisite for enforcing OneLake RBAC security?

[rohit1991 · Accepted solution]

Hi @prathijp 

This is actually a known limitation in OneLake Explorer for Windows. Even if you’ve set up security (RBAC) at the folder level, Explorer doesn’t yet show folder-level permissions properly. Those permissions only work as expected inside Fabric tools like notebooks, pipelines, or shortcuts.In Windows Explorer, users can only see content if they have Lakehouse-level read access. That’s why some users see empty folders even when they’ve been given access to a few subfolders.

Right now, the only workaround is to give users read access to the whole Lakehouse if they need to browse it via OneLake Explorer. Also, sharing the Lakehouse is required for RBAC to apply in Explorer.Microsoft already knows about this gap, and folder-level visibility is expected to be added in a future Fabric update.

[v-aatheeque]

Hi @prathijp 

Just checking in to see if the previous response helped resolve your issue. If not, feel free to share your questions and we’ll be glad to assist.

[v-aatheeque]

Hi @prathijp 

Have you had a chance to look through the responses shared earlier? If anything is still unclear, we’ll be happy to provide additional support.