Lakehouse not visible in Excel but visible in PowerBI

[lemaribdb]

Hello!

I have a weird issue.
My user has access to Lakehouse, both SQL endpoint and regular Lakehouse. Also OneLake security is enabled to just few tables.
In PowerBi, when the click new source -> Lakehouse, they see the Lakehouse and just the tables I've set. On both SQL endpoint and Direct Lake.
But when they try to do the same via Excel, when in Power Query clicking new source -> Lakehouse, they don't see it (they don't even see the worksapce with this Lakehouse).
How does it work? My only idea is that in Excel thie hierarchy is Workspace -> Lakehouse, while in PBI report/SM, you immediately see Lakehouses.
It's very annoying, I have to add this user as worskpace viewer, then it all works. But without it (how it should be), he won't see LH in Excel.

[chris_andrews · Accepted solution]

Hi @lemaribdb,

You’ve hit a current product limitation rather than doing anything wrong.

The Excel Lakehouse / Power Query connector still uses workspace‑level discovery, and it does not have the functionaility of Lakehouse sharing or OneLake Security for finding Lakehouses.​

• In Power BI Desktop/Service, the Lakehouse picker is scoped differently and can surface Lakehouses where the user has item/OneLake permissions, which is why your setup works there.

• In Excel, the connector’s discovery phase only lists Lakehouses in workspaces where the user has workspace permissions (in practice, Contributor or higher; some tenants also require at least Viewer). Users who only have Lakehouse/OneLake permissions won’t see the workspace or the Lakehouse at all.

See this previous question/solution: Solved: Excel "From Lakehouse" Connection as a Workspace V... - Microsoft Fabric Community and MS learn page: Workspace roles and permissions in lakehouse - Microsoft Fabric | Microsoft Learn

[lemaribdb]

Thank you, that's terrible haha
Is there a common idea how people work this around? I imagine Excel won't be updated to change this?
My issue is that with workspace viewer access, my workspace APP, now all the users are "workspace users" and I won't be able to modify the audience. 
Or using SQL Server conneciton or smth in Excel rather then Lakehouse option? But I don't think that works.

[chris_andrews]

I would not write-off Microsoft developing a solution for this. This area is rapidly evolving and things that were not possible a few months ago now are - like this Excel/Lakehouse connector.

Currently, there is no easy solution in my experience. My suggestion would be to create a workspace specifically dedicated to Excel users where giving viewer access is acceptable.

Would be interested to hear if others have a more elegant solution.

[lemaribdb]

Yep would like to hear more too, for my user the SQL Server instead of
"Lakehouse" approach doesn't work, not sure why, maybe the same reason.
All I can think of is exactly what you mentioned, one workspace for lakehouse/data and I can give viewer the freely. One for dashboards (no viewers) so my APP can seperate the audiences.