Troubleshooting Lookup Field Visibility in Salesforce

Introduction

Lookup fields in Salesforce allow you to create relationships between objects. However, sometimes you might encounter issues where you have the necessary permissions but still cannot see the value of certain lookup fields. In this blog post, we’ll explore common reasons for this behavior and how to troubleshoot it.

The Problem

Imagine you have the “View” permission for a record, but when you open it, some lookup fields appear empty. For instance, you can see the “Account Owner” field, but not the actual owner’s name. This situation can be frustrating, especially if the field is required.

Possible Causes

Look for the OWD section of the parent object. If it’s set to ‘Private,’ only users who are owners of the record or have been explicitly shared with can see the record.

Then check the ‘Other Settings’ section of the sharing settings. Verify if the ‘Require permission to view record names in lookup fields’ checkbox is enabled.

If you find this to be true, ensure that you have at least read or view all permissions for the associated parent record.