Published Glossary Terms Not Appearing When Editing Microsoft Purview Data Assets

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Problem

Published glossary terms were not available for selection when editing Data Map assets in Microsoft Purview.

Although the glossary terms had been created and published within Governance Domains, and the user had the appropriate permissions, the Glossary Terms dropdown remained empty. This prevented glossary terms from being assigned to data assets or individual columns.

Symptoms

The following behaviour was observed:

• Published glossary terms existed within Governance Domains in the Unified Catalog.
• User permissions had been verified and were correctly configured.
• The Glossary Terms field was visible when editing a Data Map asset.
• The dropdown opened successfully but did not display any available glossary terms.
• Glossary terms could not be associated with data assets or columns.

Root Cause

The issue occurred because Asset Curation had not been enabled in Microsoft Purview.

Although glossary terms had been created and published within Governance Domains in the Unified Catalog, the Data Map asset curation experience had not been configured to use Unified Catalog glossary terms.

As a result, the Glossary Terms field was displayed when editing an asset, but no terms were available for selection. Microsoft Purview requires Asset Curation to be enabled and configured before Unified Catalog glossary terms can be assigned to Data Map assets and columns.

Resolution

The following steps resolved the issue:

• Confirmed that no Classic Glossaries, Classic Glossary Terms or Term Templates existed in the Purview account.
• Enabled Asset Curation (Preview).
• Configured Microsoft Purview to use Unified Catalog Glossary Terms.
• Completed the Asset Curation configuration wizard.
• Edited a Data Map asset and verified that published glossary terms were now displayed.
• Successfully assigned glossary terms to both Data Map assets and individual columns.

Because no Classic Glossary content existed, there was no glossary content that required migration.

Outcome

After Asset Curation was enabled and configured, published Unified Catalog glossary terms became available in the Glossary Terms dropdown when editing Data Map assets. Glossary terms could then be successfully assigned to both assets and columns.

Key Takeaway

Creating and publishing glossary terms within Governance Domains is not sufficient on its own.

To use Unified Catalog glossary terms when curating Data Map assets and columns, Asset Curation must also be enabled and configured to use Unified Catalog Glossary Terms.