Target audience not working in left side navigation in SharePoint 2013 site

Recently we got a requirement to add few links in the left navigation in one of the SharePoint 2013 site. And the links should be permission based. When we try to customize the left Navigation, we did not see the Navigation option under Look and Feel in Site Settings page. So we followed this article to do this, basically using the URL method.

To Add a link to the left navigation and to give the audience target settings, open Site Settings page, then click on Navigation under Look and Feel. Then from “Structural Navigation: Editing and Sorting” section, click on Add Link to add a link. You can provide the Title, URL and you can provide the group name in the Audience box.

But rather than visible to those users, the was visible to everyone.

Solution:
Here we need to activate two publishing features, one in the site collection level and other one is in the site level.

Click on the Settings icon, then Site Settings. Then in the Site Settings page, click on Manage site features under Site Actions. Then in the Site Features page, search for “SharePoint Server Publishing” and click on Activate.

Then in the Site Settings page, click on “Site collection features” under Site Collection Administration.

Then in the Site Collection Features page to search for the “SharePoint Server Publishing Infrastructure” feature and click on Activate.

Now check it should work fine.

You may like following SharePoint tutorials:

• Create/Rename SharePoint group using PowerShell and Browser
• How to add Google Analytics in SharePoint Online
• SharePoint 2013 shortcut URL and hidden list
• Customize search results by using result types and display templates in SharePoint
• SharePoint 2016 new features
• List of SharePoint Shortcut Page URLs
• SharePoint miscellaneous examples
• Create a custom list and view in SharePoint designer 2013
• Difference between Windows CTP, Beta, RC, RTM, RTW, SPs, and Preview
• The total size of the activity XAML is greater than the maximum allowed size of 51200 KB error in SharePoint 2013