Microsoft Purview Portal — Guest Users Not Discoverable in Unified Catalog Role Assignment

Question

Microsoft Purview Portal — Guest Users Not Discoverable in Unified Catalog Role Assignment

Ryan Rice 0

Environment:

Commercial Azure tenant with Office 365 G5 licenses
Newly created Microsoft Purview resource in dev subscription
Accessing via purview.microsoft.com (new portal experience)

Issue: B2B Guest Users Not Discoverable in Unified Catalog Role Assignment

When attempting to assign Unified Catalog roles (Data Steward, Data Catalog Reader,

etc.) to Entra ID B2B guest users via the Purview portal, the guest users do not appear

in the people picker / user search. These same guest users exist in our Entra ID tenant,

have accepted their B2B invitations, and have access to other Azure resources without

issues.

Entra ID External Collaboration settings have been verified:

Guest user access is set to "Limited access to properties and memberships of directory

objects"

Guest invite settings are not restrictive
No domain-based collaboration restrictions are in place

We experienced a similar issue in Microsoft Fabric, which was resolved by enabling the

"Guest users can access Microsoft Fabric" tenant setting. Is there an equivalent setting

for the Microsoft Purview Unified Catalog? Additionally, does the SharePoint Online

ShowPeoplePickerSuggestionsForGuestUsers tenant setting affect guest user visibility in

the Purview portal people picker?

Ask: Confirm whether Unified Catalog role assignment supports B2B guest users, and if so,

what configuration is required to make them discoverable in the people picker.

2 answers

Your answer

Answer 1

Hi Ryan Rice,

It looks like you're facing an issue with B2B guest users not being discoverable when trying to assign Unified Catalog roles in Microsoft Purview. Here’s what you can check:

Guest User Roles: Make sure that the B2B guest users have the necessary roles assigned to them within Microsoft Purview. The relevant roles for accessing the Unified Catalog include Collection Administrator and Data Reader, among others. You can find the permissions and roles here: Microsoft Purview Roles and Permissions.

Entra ID Settings: You mentioned that the Entra ID settings for guest users permit limited access. Double-check that these settings allow for visibility in Microsoft Purview. You can refer to the Azure B2B collaboration documentation for guidance on guest access configurations.

Guest Access Configuration: While you've checked your Entra ID settings, it might be beneficial to confirm if there’s a specific setting in Microsoft Purview akin to “Guest users can access Microsoft Fabric.” Currently, Microsoft Purview does not have a direct equivalent to this setting, but verifying access settings is crucial.

Visibility in People Picker: As for the SharePoint Online setting related to suggestion display for guest users, this might impact visibility in certain scenarios. However, the most direct impact on Microsoft Purview's user assignment should come from the roles assigned and their Entra ID visibility settings.

Known Issues: Sometimes, user experience problems in the Unified Catalog can lead to similar issues. Make sure your Microsoft Purview instance is updated, and verify against the Data governance known issues documentation for any related problems.

Follow-Up Questions:

Are the guest users correctly assigned to roles, or do they need to be added to specific governance domains?
Have you confirmed that there are no domain-based restrictions affecting these guest users?
Can the guest users access other functionalities in Microsoft Purview, or is the issue isolated to role assignments?
Have you tested the guest user visibility with different accounts to ensure it’s not account-specific?

I hope this helps you work through the issue! If you have any further details, feel free to share!

Manoj Kumar Boyini 9,875 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-02-10T12:41:51.6433333+00:00

Hi Ryan Rice,

I hope you had a chance to review the information shared earlier, and I hope this information has been helpful! If you still have questions, please let us know what is needed in the comments so the question can be answered.
Ryan Rice 0 Reputation points

2026-02-12T20:03:14.86+00:00

@Manoj Kumar Boyini thank you for following up. I've attempted the above troubleshooting steps and have had no success.
Manoj Kumar Boyini 9,875 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-02-13T21:06:52.4233333+00:00

Hi Ryan Rice,

Thanks for confirming. Since the earlier steps didn’t resolve the issue, this behavior can occur when the Purview portal’s people picker is unable to return certain directory objects, even though the guest user exists and is active in Microsoft Entra ID.

Microsoft Purview does support B2B guest users for Unified Catalog role assignments. When a guest user doesn’t appear in the people picker, the most reliable and supported approach is to assign access through an Entra ID security group rather than selecting the guest directly.

Recommended:

Add the guest user to an Entra ID security group (Security group or M365 group).

In the Purview portal, assign the required Unified Catalog role to that group instead of the individual guest.

Groups are consistently discoverable in the picker even when individual guest accounts are not, and this pattern is also recommended for ongoing access management.

I hope this helps you work through the issue! If you have any further details, feel free to share!
Manoj Kumar Boyini 9,875 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-02-14T15:35:56.3466667+00:00

Hi Ryan Rice,

I hope you had a chance to review the information shared earlier, and I hope this information has been helpful! If you still have questions, please let us know what is needed in the comments so the question can be answered

Answer 2

The issue you're experiencing with B2B guest users not being discoverable in the Unified Catalog role assignment within the Microsoft Purview portal may be related to the settings and configurations in your Entra ID tenant. While the specific configuration for Microsoft Purview Unified Catalog is not detailed in the provided context, there are a few general points to consider:

Guest User Access: Ensure that the guest user access settings in your Entra ID are correctly configured. You mentioned that guest user access is set to "Limited access to properties and memberships of directory objects". This setting may restrict visibility in certain applications, including the Purview portal.
People Picker Settings: The setting ShowPeoplePickerSuggestionsForGuestUsers in SharePoint Online does not directly affect the Purview portal. However, enabling this setting in SharePoint may provide insights into how guest users are managed across different Microsoft services.
Unified Catalog Role Assignment: There is no explicit mention in the context about a specific setting for enabling guest users in the Unified Catalog role assignment. It may be beneficial to check for any updates or documentation specific to Microsoft Purview regarding B2B guest user support.
Cross-Tenant Access: If you are using cross-tenant access settings, ensure that these are configured to allow guest users from external organizations to be recognized and assigned roles in your Purview resource.

If the problem persists, consider reaching out to Microsoft support for further assistance, as they may provide additional insights or updates regarding the functionality of guest user role assignments in Microsoft Purview.

References:

Ryan Rice 0 Reputation points

2026-02-12T20:05:42.59+00:00

attempted the above steps and had no success.

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Microsoft Purview Portal — Guest Users Not Discoverable in Unified Catalog Role Assignment

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