Space permissions can be assigned to user groups or to individual users of Confluence. You need to be a space administrator to assign space permissions.
These are the different permissions that can be assigned at the space level:
- View: user can view this space's content, including the space's details, and its pages and news items (blog posts)
- Pages:
- Create – user may create and edit pages in this space.
- Export – user may export pages in this space.
- Restrict – user may apply page-level restrictions.
- Remove – user may remove pages in this space.
- Blog:
- Create – user may add and edit blog posts in this space.
- Remove – user may remove blog posts in this space.
- Comments:
- Create – user may make comments in this space.
- Remove – user may remove comments from this space.
- Attachments:
- Create – user may add attachments in this space.
- Remove – user may remove attachments from this space.
- Mail:
- Remove – user may delete individual mail items.
- Space:
- Export – user may export content from this space.
- Admin – user has administrative permissions over this space.
| Warning If you deny all administrative access to a space by mistake, so that nobody has access to administer the space any more, you will need to ask someone in the confluence-administrators group to fix the permissions for you. |
To access the space permissions:
-
Go to the 'Space Permissions' view. To do this:
- Go to a page in the space where you want to view or assign permissions.
- Choose Browse > Space Admin.
Space Admin is displayed only if you are a space administrator. - Click Permissions in the 'Security' section of the left-hand panel.
- Click the 'Edit Permissions' button. The '
- Edit Space Permissions' screen appears, as shown below.
To assign space permissions to groups:
- Access the 'Edit Space Permissions' screen as described above.
The Groupssection shows a list of groups which already have permissions to access the site.- To assign permissions, check the box next to the relevant group, for each of the required permissions.
- To deny a permission, uncheck the relevant box.
- To add a new group to the list, type the group name into the text box labelled 'Grant permission to' and click the 'Add' button. The group will appear in the list of groups and you can then assign the permissions.
- To bulk assign or revoke group member permissions, from the Actions drop-down list, choose either Select All or Deselect All.
- To search for a group:
- Click the
icon. - In the 'Group Search' window, enter all or part of the group name. You can use an asterisk '*' as a wild card.
- Check the boxes to select the required group(s).
- Click the 'Select Groups' button. The group name(s) will appear in the 'Grant permission to' text box.
- Click the 'Add' button.
- Click the
Click 'Save All' to apply the permissions.
To assign space permissions to users:
- Access the 'Edit Space Permissions' screen as described above.
The Individual Userssection shows a list of users who already have permissions to access the site.- To assign permissions, check the box next to the relevant user, for each of the required permissions.
- To deny a permission, uncheck the relevant box.
- To add a new user to the list, type the username into the text box labelled 'Grant browse permission to' and click the 'Add' button. The user will appear in the list of users, with 'View' permission assigned, and you can then add more permissions if necessary.
- To bulk assign or revoke individual user permissions, from the Actions drop-down list, choose either Select All or Deselect All.
- To search for a user:
- Click the
icon. - The 'User Search' window will appear. You can read more about searching for users.
- Check the boxes to select the required user(s).
- Click the 'Select User(s)' button. The username(s) will appear in the 'Grant browse permission to' text box.
- Click the 'Add' button.
- Click the
Click 'Save All' to apply the permissions.
To assign space permissions to anonymous users:
- Access the 'Edit Space Permissions' screen as described above. The Anonymous Accesssection shows the space permissions granted to all anonymous users of the site.
- To assign permissions, check the box for the required permission.
- To deny a permission, uncheck the relevant box.
- To bulk assign or revoke anonymous user permissions, from the Actions drop-down list, choose either Select All or Deselect All.
- Click 'Save All' to apply the permissions.
You cannot grant space administration rights or page restriction rights to anonymous users.
Screenshot : Editing space permissions

Notes about some error messages you may see
In Confluence 2.7.2 and later, Confluence will let you know if there is a problem with some permissions. In rare situations, you may see the following error messages below a permission:
- 'User/Group not found' – This message may appear if your LDAP repository is unavailable, or if the user/group has been deleted after the permission was created.
- 'Case incorrect. Correct case is: xxxxxx' – This message may appear if the upper/lower case in the permission does not match the case of the username or group name. If you see a number of occurrences of this message, you should consider running the routine supplied to fix the problem.
Related Topics
Space Permissions Overview
Viewing Space Permissions
Revoking Space Permissions
Users and Groups
Take me back to Confluence User's Guide







42 Comments
Hide/Show CommentsNov 12, 2008
Gabe Heafitz
Is it possible to assign space permissions in bulk? We have upwards of 30 spaces in our Confluence installation, and it's a real pain to have to go into each one and assign the same user and permissions. Thanks.
Nov 13, 2008
Azwandi Mohd Aris [Atlassian]
Hi Gabe,
You might want to give the Confluence Command Line Interface a try. Hope that could be of some assistance.
Cheers,
Azwandi
Nov 13, 2008
Anonymous
A lifesaver! FANTASTIC! This will really help. Thanks very much!
Nov 13, 2008
Gabe Heafitz
(Oops... Forgot to log in. That last post was from me.) Thanks again.
Jan 26, 2009
Peter R.
When giving someone Admin permissions, does one need to check all of the boxes or are "View" and "Admin" good enough? I know you can remove all permissions by simply deselecting "View". Not sure if that goes the other way; at least, the boxes don't all magically fill in.
Thanks.
Feb 04, 2009
Komathi Krishnan [Atlassian]
Hi Peter,
When you check the "Admin" boxes for giving someone admin permission, the user will have administrative permission over the space and can perform almost anything in the space regardless of other setting. Refer here for more information on what can a space administrator do?
Cheers,
Komathi
Feb 18, 2009
Anonymous
Hi,
Is there any way to add anonymous access to space using command line interface
Feb 20, 2009
Zed Yap [Atlassian]
Hi,
As far as I know, you might be able to do that by using the remote APIs provided by Confluence. The following method might be what you are looking for:
Alternatively, you might want to try the Confluence Command Line Interface tool:
• http://confluence.atlassian.com/display/CONFEXT/Confluence+Command+Line+Interface
Please be noted that the tool is not supported by Atlassian.
Hope that helps.
Best rgds,
zed
Feb 24, 2009
Alison Paddock
Hi,
Do you know if there is a limit to how many users can be added as individuals to a space? Apart from the limitation in patience maintaining the list that is
.
Thanks
Alison
Feb 25, 2009
Zed Yap [Atlassian]
Hi Alisson,
As far as I am concerned, there is no limitation on the number of individual permission that can be set in a space.
Just to test this out, I was able to add around 300 individual permissions to a space without problems.
Best rgds,
Zed
Jun 02, 2009
Anonymous
Hi Zed,
We have created a group in a space and we are trying to add users to that group.
It looks like there is a limitation of 20 users we can add to the group. We wanted to add around 300 users to this group.
Is there any settings that we need to change for this?
Best Regards,
jabir
Mar 18, 2009
Michael Vescovo
Hi. Is it possible to allow an individual user or group permission to a page within a space where they don't have any permission? i.e. the opposite of individual page restrictions?
Mar 20, 2009
Arie Murdianto
Hi,
I am sorry it is not possible. If you have set the space to not allow some users then the users should not be able to see any pages inside the space.
May 05, 2009
Anonymous
So if a space administrator goes on vacation, you are essentially locked out from changing permissions on that space ... even as a System Administrator?
May 06, 2009
Zed Yap [Atlassian]
Hi,
As far as I know, the System Administrator will able to access the space permission as stated in this page:
Hope that helps.
Best rgds,
Zed
May 06, 2009
Anonymous
Yeah, you will see they say "Space permissions can only be granted by a space administrator. A space administrator has permission to do anything in the space regardless of any other setting."
Later the document says "If you deny all administrative access to a space by mistake, so that nobody has access to administer the space any more, you will need to ask someone in the confluence-administrators group to fix the permissions for you.", but it doesn't explain how. I certainly can't find any way to fix them, I would think a "System Administrator" would be able to change any "Space Permissions". I'm guessing whoever wrote the documentation assumed the same thing I did, but didn't check.
Jun 24, 2009
Sashidaran Jayaraman [Atlassian]
Hi,
In order to fix the problem, log in as anyone in the confluence-administrators group and follow the above section To assign space permissions to users. Give the admin privilege to the user selected.
Hope that helps.
Cheers
JSashi
Jul 29, 2010
Anonymous
You can't reach the space admin or space permissions screen as a confluence admin. The procedure doesn't work. Is there an alternative way to reset permissions on a space?
May 06, 2009
Anonymous
Hi,
As a confluence administrator can I restrict a space administrator from creating more than 1 space?
Thanks.
Jan 04, 2011
Azwandi Mohd Aris [Atlassian]
Hello there,
A Space Administrator will not be able to create a global space unless he has the "Create Space (s)" permission in the Global Permissions. On a related note, there is no way to limit the count of the space creation for a user who has the "Create Space (s)" permission.
Hope that helps,
Azwandi
Aug 17, 2009
Qian Zhao
Hi, is there a way to remove an individual user from the permissions tab? For example, an individual user was granted access before. Later as he/she left we wanted to remove his/her name from the "individual users" section completely. I know we can uncheck his/her "view" access or uncheck all access to prevent further usage, but it's better to no longer show this user at all. Anyone can help? Thanks.
Aug 17, 2009
Zed Yap [Atlassian]
Hi Qian Zhao,
I strongly recommend you to disable the user rather then removing the user, this is because you will not be able to remove the particular user who has created a content, page,comment and etc at your instance. However, if you still insists to delete the user you might want to refer to this documentation:
NOTE: Please backup your database and your home directory before you proceed the above recommendation.
Hope that helps.
Best rgds,
Zed
Apr 23, 2010
Chad Ostrowski
Hmm. I find it fairly bizarre that I can't remove the user from the permissions structure. I don't want to remove the user from Confluence entirely, only from the permissions setup. There seems to be no option for that.
Also, now that I've redundantly added this user (they are already in a group with the same permissions!), which takes precedence, the group permission setting or the individual permission setting?
May 04, 2010
Qian Zhao
I recently found out if you uncheck everything in the individual user permission for that specific user, he/she will be removed from the permission setup.
As for your second question, I'm curious too.
Nov 15, 2009
Lior Shaki
Hi
Permissions management in Confluence is rather limited when it comes to implemenation within the organizations.
In our case we have many teams and groups that need permissions to specific pages in a space.
If I set the permissions on a space to LDAP Group 'GroupA' and now need to assign read/write permissions on selected page(s) within the space to 'GroupB', I need to grant 'GroupB' permissions on the entire space and then restric all other pages to 'GroupA' only.
Is there an intention in Attlassian to fix this architucture and to allow the same structure that exists in Window.?
Nov 19, 2010
Alex Dr
Hi,
I am actually looking for exactly the same functionality. If you have a space full of pages that you only want to share on a "need to know" basis, then I don't see a workable solution in Confluence. Did you arrive at a solution in the mean time?
Thank you,
Alex
Feb 08, 2010
Gina Wadley
I don't believe the following statement which appears above on the page is correct:
"Differences in Confluence Hosted
If you are using Confluence Hosted, anonymous visitors cannot access your site. Read more about the [feature limitations in Confluence Hosted]."
We are using Confluence Hosted on a month-to-month subscription and anonymous visitors do have access, which is what we expect. Could someone from Atlassian please verify? I searched on Support issues, knowledgebase, etc. and didn't find anything else about it.
Thanks,
Gina
Feb 12, 2010
Azwandi Mohd Aris [Atlassian]
Hi Gina,
I am not sure where I can find this statement, would you mind pointing us to the page? I would not be surprised if there is such a reference, as our previous hosted version was a shared instance and this permission setting was imposed on it. We will amend the page accordingly.
The current hosted version is no longer a shared instance, and therefore, subscribers are given full access to the instance. In general, you should be able to allow/disallow anonymous users from accessing your hosted instance.
Cheers,
Azwandi
Feb 12, 2010
Gina Wadley
Hi Azwandi,
Check out the page history for this page from this week:
[Giles Gaskell Atlassian Technical Writer|http://confluence.atlassian.com/display/~ggaskell]:
Removed reference to Confluence Hosted for Small Business due to its service termination.
I was so impressed that someone is monitoring these comments and correcting the docs right away, that I told everyone involved in our wiki pilot.
Gina
Feb 12, 2010
Azwandi Mohd Aris [Atlassian]
Hi Gina. Thanks for pointing that out. Credits to Giles for getting into this real quick. Anyway, I hope that the wiki pilot will turn out to be successful!
May 07, 2010
Tanya Joseph
Hi,
Is there a way to assign a group to have permission to all spaces as default?
I want to create a group who can view all pages and content without having the rights to view the admin console.
Thanks
Jul 29, 2010
Husein Alatas [Atlassian]
Hi Tanya,
This might not be a timely response.
The only way I can think of is including those users to
confluence-usersgroup. Then when you create a Space, leave the default settings for the permission which is Registered Users (confluence-usersgroup). You will need to check your Global Permissions to ensure thatconfluence-usersgroup does not have permission to access Administration Console.I have also found an improvement request here pertaining to your requirement.
Please feel free to add yourself as a watcher, vote for this improvement and add your own comments to this request. For further details on how we include new features and improvements, you might want to read this page.
Hope this helps
Cheers,
Husein
May 13, 2010
Anonymous
Hi,
Our one of requirement is to get a tab sheet/style look and feel for all major/top-level folders. We achieved this by adding composition plug-in.
Now we need to know whether "it is possible to restrict viewing/displaying the tab based on the access privilege”. I searched atlassian site for this but i didn’t find solution. Can you please help me?
May 14, 2010
Azwandi Mohd Aris [Atlassian]
I am not entirely sure of your requirements, however, may I know if you are aware of Page Restrictions? This feature provides View and Edit restriction for a page and its children, allowing you to select who can view and edit the page.
Jul 30, 2010
Anonymous
Is there any kind of access right, which limits/denies the adding of "Individual Users"?
My "Space Admin" page doesen't looks like this after pressing the "Edit Permissions" button.
The "Grant browse permission to"- input field is missing.
Regards,
Boris
Aug 04, 2010
Sashidaran Jayaraman [Atlassian]
Hi Boris,
You should be able to see the "Grant browse permission to"- input field if you are a space admin. I would highly suggest you to raise a support ticket to https://support.atlassian.com, so that your issue can be further investigated. Also provide the following:
Cheers
JSashi
Aug 20, 2010
Patrick Masson
One of the issues affecting adoption within our group is a concern that Confluence Administrators will be able to see private pages (HR, CEO's stuff, etc.). Is there a way to restrict viewing from everyone including the Confluence Administrator. How are other organizations handling this?
Aug 23, 2010
Zed Yap [Atlassian]
Hi Patrick,
There is a discussion on this matter in the following improvement request:
I am afraid that confluence-administrators group have a special privileged and current we cannot remove those privilege. I would suggest you to move the user in Confluence-administrator groups to another group and make sure that the groups has the Administrator permission in global permission.
Hope that helps.
Cheers,
Zed
Oct 14, 2010
Anonymous
Hello there,
Is is possible to change the default space permissions? I want to make sure all users can remove attachments, and it takes too much time to administer the space settings everytime one is created.
Many thanks
Sabrina
Nov 12, 2010
Anonymous
How this is affected when you manage user with CROWD? Do I need to do some special configuration to the groups.
I want to keep the group confluence-users for those users with access to all spaces.
then I want to create individual groups with limited access to specific spaces. When I do that, I notice that the access if totally denied.
What do I need to do in order to accomplish that with Crowd and Conflunce?
"What you need to do, is create your different groups and put in the relevant users. You will then setup the group permissions for each space in Confluence." - How this work with Crowd?
May 17, 2011
Anonymous
Hello there,
is it possible to prevent confluence admin visiting my personal space? I known there is no option in the 'Space Permissions', but exist some hack or so to do that.
Thanks
Alex
Jan 04, 2012
Anthony Leonard
If a person is in two groups A and B, and each group is given different permission sets A' and B' on a space, is the permission set applied for that person A' && B' or A' || B' ?
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