diff --git a/src/plugins/dashboard/public/dashboard_container/embeddable/dashboard_container.tsx b/src/plugins/dashboard/public/dashboard_container/embeddable/dashboard_container.tsx
index 23052bd094e82..a3ce4e9778f3a 100644
--- a/src/plugins/dashboard/public/dashboard_container/embeddable/dashboard_container.tsx
+++ b/src/plugins/dashboard/public/dashboard_container/embeddable/dashboard_container.tsx
@@ -835,7 +835,9 @@ export class DashboardContainer
     const references = getReferencesForPanelId(childId, this.savedObjectReferences);
     return {
       rawState,
-      references,
+      // references from old installations may not be prefixed with panel id
+      // fall back to passing all references in these cases to preserve backwards compatability
+      references: references.length > 0 ? references : this.savedObjectReferences,
     };
   };