Navigate the Fabric Lakehouse explorer

The Lakehouse explorer is the central page for interacting with your lakehouse in the Fabric portal. To open it, go to your workspace and select a lakehouse item. From here you can browse tables and files, preview data, load new data, and manage lakehouse objects.

The page has two main areas: the explorer pane on the left for navigating tables and files, and the main view on the right for previewing and interacting with the selected item. A ribbon across the top provides quick-access actions.

Tables

The Tables section of the explorer pane shows the managed area of your lakehouse. This area contains all your Delta tables, organized by schema if schemas are enabled.

From the explorer pane, you can:

• Browse schemas, tables, and table details.
• Select a table to preview in the main view.
• Access a table's underlying files from the context menu.
• Rename or delete tables, create schemas or shortcuts, and view table properties.

Table and file views

When you select a table, the main view shows the table data in a preview datagrid. Use the dropdown to switch between two views:

• Table view — Displays the table data as rows and columns. You can sort columns in ascending or descending order, filter data by substring or by selecting from a list of values, and resize columns.
• File view — Displays the underlying Delta and Parquet files that back the selected table (stored under /Tables/schema/tablename/ in OneLake). This view shows the table's internal storage, not the Files section in the explorer pane.

You can switch between table view and file view without going back to the explorer pane.

Table deep links

You can generate a unique URL for any table so that others can open the Lakehouse explorer with that table already previewed. Select ... next to the table and choose Copy URL.

Unidentified area

The Unidentified area appears under Tables in the explorer pane when the managed area contains folders or files that the lakehouse can't recognize as Delta tables. Common causes include:

• Broken shortcuts — If a shortcut target becomes invalid (for example, after a git sync or deployment pipeline update), the shortcut moves to the Unidentified section until the target is resolved.
• Non-Delta content written programmatically — Files written to the /Tables/ path through the OneLake API or other tools that aren't valid Delta tables appear here.
• Nested subfolders — Subfolders placed under /Tables/ that don't follow the expected Delta table structure are labeled as unidentified.

From this section, you can delete unidentified items or move them to the Files section.

Files

The Files section of the explorer pane represents the unmanaged area of your lakehouse — a landing zone for raw data ingested from various sources. The explorer pane shows only folders at the top level. To see individual files, select a folder to open it in the main view.

From the explorer pane, you can:

• Browse your lakehouse directories.
• Select a folder to preview its contents in the main view.
• Rename or delete folders, create subfolders or shortcuts, and upload files and folders.

File preview

When you select a folder from Files, the main view shows the contents of that folder. This is separate from the file view toggle described in Table and file views.

You can preview the following file types directly in the main view:

• Image: jpg, jpeg, png, bmp, gif, svg
• Text: txt, js, ts, tsx, py, json, xml, css, mjs, md, html, ps1, yaml, yml, log, sql

For tabular file formats like CSV, the main view also offers a table view that renders the file data as rows and columns, similar to the table preview for Delta tables.

Reference lakehouses

You can add multiple lakehouses to the explorer pane as references, so you can view and manage them alongside your primary lakehouse. To add a reference lakehouse, select Add lakehouse in the explorer pane and choose the lakehouse you want to add.

With reference lakehouses, you can:

• Add any lakehouse you have access to, while keeping your primary lakehouse clearly distinguished.
• Sort, filter, and search across all schemas, tables, and folders in all added lakehouses.
• Preview data, create subfolders, rename objects, and perform other actions directly in the explorer.
• Copy a reference lakehouse URL and paste it into your browser to open the Lakehouse explorer with that lakehouse as the primary.

Filter, sort, and search

Sorting, filtering, and searching are available in both the explorer pane and the main view to help you find and organize lakehouse objects.

• Sort schemas, tables, files, and folders by name or creation date through the object's context menu. Sorting applies to the immediate children of the selected parent node.
• Filter objects by type, loading status, or creation date.
  • In the explorer pane: filter schemas and tables.
  • In the main view: filter files and folders.
• Search for schemas, tables, files, or folders by entering a substring.
  • In the explorer pane: search schemas and tables.
  • In the main view: search files and folders.

Download files

You can download files directly from the Lakehouse explorer, from both table files and the Files section (with required permissions). Downloaded files include Microsoft Information Protection (MIP) sensitivity labels for supported formats.

To enable file downloads:

1. In the Fabric portal, select the Settings gear icon (⚙) at the top of the page.
2. In the side pane, under Governance and administration, select Admin portal.
3. Select Tenant settings.
4. Under OneLake settings, turn on "Users can access data stored in OneLake with apps external to Fabric."

Ribbon

The ribbon across the top of the Lakehouse explorer provides quick access to common actions: refresh your lakehouse, access item settings, load data, create or open notebooks, create semantic models, and more.

SQL analytics endpoint

You can access the SQL analytics endpoint directly from the dropdown in the top-right area of the ribbon. This opens the T-SQL editor, where you can query your Delta tables with SQL to prepare them for reporting.

Related content

• Options to get data into the Fabric Lakehouse
• What are lakehouse schemas?
• Lakehouse overview