Embed report with personal bookmarks enabled

[Dave149]

Hi everyone,

I'm hoping to get some guidance on the following setup:

We have a Power BI report located in a workspace, and our goal is to distribute this report across multiple apps—without giving users full access to the entire workspace.

So far, we’ve found that:

• We can assign permissions on a per-report basis, which allows us to embed the individual report into different apps (using https://app.powerbi.com/reportEmbed?...)

• Using URL parameters (e.g., &actionBarEnabled=true), we can enable the action bar in the embedded view.

However, we are facing a challenge when it comes to enabling the personal bookmarks feature, which is a key requirement for our users. We haven't yet found a way to activate personal bookmarks for embedded reports on app.powerbi.com.

Does anyone know if it’s possible to enable personal bookmarks in this context, or if there’s a better approach to achieve our setup?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance,
David

[aganotra]

I don't see setting “Allow users to create personal bookmarks”

Can you please share a screenshot of where to see this setting...

[v-sgandrathi]

Hi @aganotra,

Thank you for sharing the screenshot. In the latest Power BI service, the “Allow users to create personal bookmarks” option does not appear as a separate toggle under Export and sharing settings in the Admin Portal anymore.
This feature is now enabled by default for all tenants, provided users meet the requirements. To confirm, personal bookmarks will only show when the report is accessed directly through a published App (not via embed URL), the action bar is enabled, and users have a Power BI Pro license (or the report is hosted in a Premium capacity) with at least Viewer access to the App.

Is your admin has already confirmed there is no restriction in tenant settings?
If Yes, then next step would be to test the report directly from the App and check if the “Add a personal bookmark” option appears in the action bar.
If users still do not see the option despite fulfilling all prerequisites, it would be advisable to raise a support ticket through Microsoft 365 Admin Center so the product team can review if it is a service-side limitation for your tenant.
How to create a Fabric and Power BI Support ticket - Power BI | Microsoft Learn

Thank you.

[v-sgandrathi]

Hi @Dave149,

Thank you for raising this. The super user’s response is correct mentioning personal bookmarks in Power BI only function when the report is accessed through a published app, not just via the reportEmbed URL.
To enable personal bookmarks, the report must be included in a Power BI App with the "Allow users to create personal bookmarks" option enabled in the app settings before publishing.

Users must have at least Viewer access to the app and either a Power BI Pro license or access through a Premium capacity workspace. It's important to note that while you can distribute the same report across multiple apps, bookmarks are tied to the report itself, so isolating bookmark experiences per app isn't supported.
As a workaround, you might consider using row-level security or creating separate versions of the report for different apps to simulate isolated views.

Glad I could assist! If this answer helped resolve your issue, please mark it as Accept as Solution and give us Kudos to guide others facing the same concern.

Thank you,
Sahasra
Community Support Team.

[v-sgandrathi]

Hi @Dave149,

May I ask if you have gotten this issue resolved?

If it is solved, please mark the helpful reply or share your solution and accept it as solution, it will be helpful for other members of the community who have similar problems as yours to solve it faster.

Thank you.

[rohit1991 · Accepted solution]

Hi @Dave149 

Enabling personal bookmarks in embedded Power BI reports through app.powerbi.com can be a bit restrictive, especially when embedding via apps and not giving full workspace access. As of now, personal bookmarks are supported in Power BI service only when users have direct access to the report, either through the workspace or app in which the report is published.

If you're embedding the report via URL (like reportEmbed?...), personal bookmarks won't work unless the report is accessed through a published app where the personal bookmark feature is explicitly enabled in the app settings. To ensure users can use personal bookmarks, you should publish the report within a Power BI App and make sure that the “Allow users to create personal bookmarks” option is turned on in the app settings before publishing.

Also, users must have at least Viewer access to the app and a Power BI Pro license (or the report must be in a Premium capacity). Unfortunately, embedding reports across multiple apps with isolated bookmark experiences per app isn’t natively supported, so aligning personal bookmarks with user-specific views may require some creative use of row-level security and user-specific filters as a workaround.

[Dave149]

Hi, 

thanks a lot for your explanation and sorry for my late reply, I was out of office for the past days. 

I have one follow up question regarding enabling the option “Allow users to create personal bookmarks”: Where exactly can I find it?

The settings menu for the app looks like this on my end with no option for enabling the personal bookmark (see screenshot of my view below). Likewise, I had no luck finding such an option in the other tabs or when creating a new app.

Is it possible that this option is restricted by default or by the admin of our tenant and needs to be activated beforehand? 

The license type of my account is "Pro" so that should not be a problem.

Many thanks in advance!

Kind regards

David

[v-sgandrathi]

Hi @Dave149,

The reason you don’t see the “Allow users to create personal bookmarks” option in your Power BI App settings is likely because this feature is disabled at the tenant level by your Power BI administrator. This option usually appears during the app creation or editing process under advanced settings, but if tenant settings restrict it, it will be hidden. To resolve this, you’ll need to contact your Power BI Service Administrator and ask them to enable personal bookmarks in the Admin Portal under Tenant Settings > Export and sharing settings > Personal bookmarks. Once enabled for your user or security group, the option should appear during app publishing, allowing you to let users create and use personal bookmarks within the app.

Happy to help! If this addressed your concern, marking it as "Accepted Solution" and giving us "kudos" would be valuable for others in the community.

Thank you.