Forum Discussion
Helper IPowerBI Service - Hide sidebar in full screen mode
It seems a change has happened in Power BI service and the Sidebar menu option is now showing in full screen.
To be clear - it's this side navigation menu, not anything inside of the Power BI report itself (or the navigation pane).
?chromeless=true and &navContentPanelEnabled=false do not have any effect on the sidebar.
Does anyone have a method of removing this from full screen view on dashboards without resorting to external downloads (e.g. 3rd party apps)? this sticks out like a sore thumb now taking away from fullscreen mode.
8 Replies
- tayloramy
Super User
Hi Transform121,
You’re seeing expected behavior. In the native Power BI Service, the global left sidebar (the service left rail) isn’t removed by Full screen on dashboards, and URL flags like ?chromeless=true or &navContentPaneEnabled=false don’t apply to Service views. Those flags only work in embedded scenarios (Secure embed or Power BI Embedded), not when you open content directly in app.powerbi.com. Microsoft’s own guidance and community replies align with this limitation. See: community confirmation you can’t hide Service chrome in full screen.
Quick solution
- There’s no supported switch to hide the Service sidebar for dashboards. If you need a truly chrome-less view, use an embedded view instead of the native Service:
- 1) Convert the dashboard to a report (single-page report that looks like your dashboard).
- 2) Use Secure embed (File → Embed report → Website or portal) and open the embed URL. You can then hide in-frame UI with parameters or embed settings (e.g., nav/page navigation). Docs: Secure embed for reports, settings: configure-report-settings.
- 3) Note: Secure embed works for reports, not dashboards. If you must keep dashboards, you’d need Power BI Embedded or Publish to web (public, not recommended). See: RADACAD note that Secure embed is reports-only, and Publish to web considerations.
If you found this helpful, consider giving some Kudos. If I answered your question or solved your problem, mark this post as the solution.
Transform121Hi tayloramy ,
I appreciate the response but am not accepting the solution just yet. There is evidence of questions going out in the past 3 weeks from the community that the sidebar navigation which you're saying is expected behaviour is not expected behaviour in dashboard view.
Prior to ~ 3 weeks ago when you viewed a dashboard in fullscreen mode the sidebar pane did not show at all. I have been using Power BI for just shy of 5 years now and this is new functionality.
An example image I have is from a bug ticket I have from September 2024. I have greyed out the information, but you can see the dashboard is displayed in full screen (by the white borders) on one of our test screens, and no sidebar is present.
This is the same screen today (taken < 5 minutes ago) with the report, that now has more data
As you can see, comparatively the test screens all now have sidebars on them when they did not historically.
- lbendlin
Seems to be buggy behavior. Select an item from the sidebar, then go back to your report in full screen mode - the sidebar will be gone.
- Transform121
Hi lbendlin Are you able to provide steps to reproduce how you've done this as I can't get it to remove.
I've tried a few different methods with both reports and dashboards:
- open dashboard
- click full screen (I have also used the F11 shortcut method)
- click any item from the sidebar (e.g. browse, or OneLake Catalog)
- click back to the report/dashboard
- re-activate full screen mode (both via clicking full-screen in Service, and by presssing F11)
The sidebar is still present in all variations I've tried.
This is using Windows 11 and Google Chrome.
- lbendlin
I cannot recreate the workaround any more. If you have a Pro license you can open a Pro ticket at https://admin.powerplatform.microsoft.com/newsupportticket/powerbi
Otherwise you can raise an issue at https://community.fabric.microsoft.com/t5/Issues/idb-p/Issues .
v-saisrao-msftCommunity Support
Hi Transform121,
Have you had a chance to review the solution we shared by lbendlin? If the issue persists, feel free to reply so we can help further.
Focus mode and View mode - how to zoom in to see more detail - Power BI | Microsoft Learn
Thank you.
I'm experiencing the same issue as OP. The app nav bar was previously not present in full screen mode, but now is. And this is relatively new behavior.
I'd like for the app navigation bar to be removed from full screen, as well. The intention for full screen should be for the report to be the entire focus of the screen. The nav bar takes up too much space and is distracting, particularly in a presentation setting. If I want to navigate away, I would simply exit full screen mode first.
When we work in PowerPoint, we don't have menu options in Presentation mode, right? Power BI should reflect the same philosophy.
