diff --git a/public/app/features/folders/state/navModel.ts b/public/app/features/folders/state/navModel.ts
index 5c7e0d4ffb4..5489c21bd45 100644
--- a/public/app/features/folders/state/navModel.ts
+++ b/public/app/features/folders/state/navModel.ts
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ import { config } from '@grafana/runtime';
 import { t } from 'app/core/internationalization';
 import { contextSrv } from 'app/core/services/context_srv';
 import { getNavSubTitle } from 'app/core/utils/navBarItem-translations';
-import { AccessControlAction, FolderDTO } from 'app/types';
+import { AccessControlAction, FolderDTO, FolderParent } from 'app/types';
 
 export const FOLDER_ID = 'manage-folder';
 
@@ -13,7 +13,9 @@ export const getAlertingTabID = (folderUID: string) => `folder-alerting-${folder
 export const getPermissionsTabID = (folderUID: string) => `folder-permissions-${folderUID}`;
 export const getSettingsTabID = (folderUID: string) => `folder-settings-${folderUID}`;
 
-export function buildNavModel(folder: FolderDTO, parents = folder.parents): NavModelItem {
+export function buildNavModel(folder: FolderDTO | FolderParent, parentsArg?: FolderParent[]): NavModelItem {
+  const parents = parentsArg ?? ('parents' in folder ? folder.parents : undefined);
+
   const model: NavModelItem = {
     icon: 'folder',
     id: FOLDER_ID,
diff --git a/public/app/types/folders.ts b/public/app/types/folders.ts
index 83d01c5c273..3dfbe7e772e 100644
--- a/public/app/types/folders.ts
+++ b/public/app/types/folders.ts
@@ -5,6 +5,8 @@ export interface FolderListItemDTO {
   title: string;
 }
 
+export type FolderParent = Pick<FolderDTO, 'title' | 'uid' | 'url'>;
+
 export interface FolderDTO extends WithAccessControlMetadata {
   canAdmin: boolean;
   canDelete: boolean;
@@ -15,7 +17,9 @@ export interface FolderDTO extends WithAccessControlMetadata {
   hasAcl: boolean;
   id: number;
   parentUid?: string;
-  parents?: FolderDTO[];
+
+  // The API does actually return a full FolderDTO here, but we want to restrict it to just a few properties
+  parents?: FolderParent[];
   title: string;
   uid: string;
   updated: string;