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Every space has its own independent set of permissions.

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.

Permissions can be assigned to any group, to any individual user in the Confluence-User group, and to users in the Anonymous group.

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.

Related Topics

Space Administrators and their Permissions
Users and Groups
Viewing Space Permissions
Assigning Space Permissions
Revoking Space Permissions
Page Restrictions

Take me back to Confluence User's Guide

37 Comments

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  1. Mar 03, 2008

    Anonymous

    The warning should say to contact the Help Desk vs the group listed.

  2. Nov 21, 2008

    Nata Ramanenka

    Can I make the space not to be listed in the search results?

    1. Nov 25, 2008

      Azwandi Mohd Aris [Atlassian]

      Hi Nata,

      Unfortunately, this feature is not available in Confluence yet. You might want to cast your vote on an existing feature request at http://jira.atlassian.com/browse/CONF-3921

      Cheers,
      Azwandi

      1. Nov 26, 2008

        Nata Ramanenka

        Thanks!

  3. Jan 07, 2009

    Anonymous

    How do I set the default permissions for new spaces?

    1. Jan 11, 2009

      Giles Gaskell [Atlassian Technical Writer]

      Hello there,

      When creating a new space, you can establish permissions to:

      • view and comment on space content or
      • contribute page content within a space

      While creating a new space, yourself and other registered users are granted these high-level permissions by default. However, at this point, you can modify these defaults such that registered users other than yourself can be denied either or both of these permissions.

      For more information on creating new spaces and how to set these permissions, see:

      Once inside a Confluence space you've created, you can set more specific permissions for it through Space Admin > Permissions.

      Hope this information helps.

      Kind regards,

      Giles Gaskell
      Technical Writer
      ggaskell@atlassian.com
      ATLASSIAN - http://www.atlassian.com

      1. Feb 05, 2009

        Anonymous

        So you are not able to set default permissions for global groups, nor can you change the options available when creating the space. You just need to first give all the permissions to your self and then modify permissions from the space admininstration. Am I right?

        It is somewhat dangerous to have the option "anyone logged into confluence" in creating new global space. At least in our organization we have also clients in the confluence and they should not see the content of spaces related to other clients.

        1. Feb 23, 2009

          Giles Gaskell [Atlassian Technical Writer]

          Hello there,

          In response to your first query, your understanding is correct in that group access permissions are set (after the space creation step) via the Browse -> Confluence Admin -> Global Permissions section at a Confluence-installation-wide level (or at a space-specific level via the Browse -> Space Admin -> Permission section - once you're inside the relevant space).

          As a Wiki product whose main aim is to share information and promote interactive content updates to such information within and across multiple spaces, I suspect that Confluence's default options (when creating new spaces) reflect this aim.

          Bear in mind that if you wish to hide information from different groups in a new space you're about to create, you can always deny access to everyone (i.e. Registered Users) except yourself first and then implement group-level access at the space-specific level (i.e. the Browse -> Space Admin -> Permission section of the relevant space).

          Once you've done this, you can start adding users to the groups (that you assigned space-specific access) via the Confluence Admin area. Alternatively, you could do the reverse, by assigning users to groups first and then granting those groups space-specific permissions.

          Finally, bear in mind that group- and user-level restrictions can also be implemented at a page-specific level when creating/editing new pages.

          Best regards,

          Giles Gaskell
          Technical Writer
          ggaskell@atlassian.com
          ATLASSIAN - http://www.atlassian.com

          1. Mar 28, 2011

            Eddie Webb

            Giles:  Our problem is that we use LDAP, and the group conluence-users does not exist.  Instead all wiki users get xx_otherGroup.

            How can I make xx_otherGroup the default permission group? (instead of conluence-users)

          2. May 24, 2011

            Elvar Bjarki Böðvarsson

            I'm in the same boat as Giles, LDAP to authenticate and none of those users are in the confluence-users group

            1. Sep 01, 2011

              John Minne

              The only work-around I have found is to find an LDAP group that everyone is in (we have "All") and then manually give that group access to each space. 

              I'm surprised there is not a way to edit the permissions for multiple spaces at once.  It was an annoying process.

  4. Jan 08, 2009

    Subhash Mathur

    Is it possible to remove the facility to change permissions settings for Anonymous Users from Space Administration - Permissions page altogether?

    We would like the Confluence Admin to set "view" only permission for anonymous users for selected spaces (at the time of creation of space), and want to insure that Space Admins do not inadvertantly change it to allow other permissions to anonymous users or even allow "view" permissions in spaces that are meant for all.

    We need to open up certain areas of the Wiki to all in our intranet wheather they are registered Wiki users (part of confluence-user group) or not.

    Thanks

    1. Feb 05, 2009

      Azwandi Mohd Aris [Atlassian]

      Hi Subhash,

      If the Confluence admin does not allow anonymous access in the Global Permissions page, any space-level settings related to anonymous access will not take place. If you think this is inadequate, feel free to raise an improvement request at http://jira.atlassian.com.

      Cheers,
      Azwandi

  5. Jan 23, 2009

    Warren Schultz

    This is somewhat related to the questions above, but more specific:

    Is there a way to set the default permissions for people's "Personal Space" pages?

    For example:
    If we have contractors with access to certain areas of the wiki, we do not want them to have access to everyone's personal space sites, but we don't want every user to have to go in and manually allow others in the "Internal Staff" group to see their site (when they've already chosen Registered users on setup).

    Thanks!

    1. Feb 16, 2009

      Zed Yap [Atlassian]

      Hi Warren,

      Currently the feature requested is not available yet. However there is a feature request being raised in our JIRA. Feel free to add your comment on this issue, vote for it and add yourself as watcher for future updates.

      Best rgds,
      Zed

  6. Aug 21, 2009

    Anonymous

    I added some permissions on a space for individual user. Now this user is in a group so I do not need special permissions as individual. I wanted just to delete all them but this is not possible. Why can I not remove this user from individual permission list if once added?

    1. Aug 24, 2009

      Sashidaran Jayaraman [Atlassian]

      Hi,

      I think the user you are trying to remove has the space admin permission? If that is correct, you need to replace the user with another user or group that you want to grant the space admin permission. Just follow the steps documented here in order to assign space-admin permission to another user/group. You can only remove a particular space admin after assigning the space permission to another user/group. Otherwise you will get the error message "You are not allowed to remove all the Administration Permissions for this space."

      Hope that helps. If I have misunderstood your question and you require further assistance, please raise a support ticket to https://support.atlassian.com, so that your issue can be further investigated. Also provide the following:

      1. The exact error message that you receive when you try to remove the individual user from the permission list
      2. A copy of your Confluence log file located at <confluence-home>/logs/atlassian-confluence.log
      3. The system information page. You can obtain the page by accessing the http://<path-to-confluence>/500page.jsp
      4. Screenshots that illustrate the problem.

      Cheers
      JSashi

  7. Aug 25, 2009

    Anonymous

    Is there any way to grant the permission to “delete your own stuff” (pages you have created) as opposed to the permission to delete any page in a particular space?

    1. Aug 26, 2009

      Zed Yap [Atlassian]

      Hi,

      Is there any way to grant the permission to “delete your own stuff” (pages you have created) as opposed to the permission to delete any page in a particular space?

      As far as I know, the feature request is not available yet. However, there is an improvement being raise on this issue:

      Please add your comments to the discussion, vote on it and add yourself as a watcher for future updates. Also, please bear in mind the following document on how we schedule features for inclusion in our products: Implementation of New Features and Improvements

      Hope that helps.
      Best rgds,
      Zed (smile)

  8. Jan 08, 2010

    Adam Kaplan

    Hi,

    Are there any plans for adding a "View" permission to the News component, or allowing restricted access to individual News items for a given space's News?

    Our company is generally open when it comes to our projects, and most spaces can be accessed by any employee (including my current project's space).  We would like to use the News feature to post updates from our clients in the appropriate spaces, however, most of the time that info is highly confidential and needs to be restricted to a particular team.  Right now the only way we can do that is to lock down the entire space, which we're not huge fans of.

    Thank You,

    Adam

    1. Jan 26, 2010

      Sashidaran Jayaraman [Atlassian]

      Hi Adam,

      I am afraid that this is not currently possible.However, I have found a similar feature request. Please add yourself as a watcher, vote for this feature and add your own comments to this feature request. For further details on how we include new features and improvements, you might want to read this page

      Cheers
      JSashi

  9. Jan 14, 2010

    Anonymous

    It would be useful to be able to restrict participation in a space to a set of individuals, but to allow those individuals to participate anonymously. Is this possible?

    1. Jan 14, 2010

      Zed Yap [Atlassian]

      Hi

      It would be useful to be able to restrict participation in a space to a set of individuals, but to allow those individuals to participate anonymously. Is this possible?

      If I understand you correctly, you want a space restriction to a group of user. However, the space still can be view by anonymous user? If that is the case you can change the permission for the group of user and make sure anonymous have can view permission. You will also need the can view permission in the global permission.

      Please let me know if I have mis-interpreted your question.

      Best rgds,
      Zed

      1. Jan 14, 2010

        Anonymous

        Not quite, the question related to a space restricted to a group of named users, but edits made by those users not attributable to any of the individuals enrolled to the space - sorry if it didn't make sense. I've a feeling that Confluence can't offer this though.

  10. Jan 14, 2010

    Daniel Coe

    Our company is using *cough* 2.8.1 1322.

    In the View Space Permissions area, I see that you can add users.  But how can you remove them?

    1. Jan 14, 2010

      Daniel Coe

      After a little digging, I found the answer to my problem...

      http://confluence.atlassian.com/display/DOC/Revoking+Space+Permissions

      Quick removal of permissions
      To remove all permissions for a user or group, just remove the 'View' permission. The user or group will disappear from the list when you save the permission updates. There's no need to untick all the permissions for that user or group.

      1. Jan 15, 2010

        Zed Yap [Atlassian]

        Hi Daniel,

        You are right on the spot. If a user or group do not have the Can view in the space permission, this equivalent the user/group is restricted from the Space.

        I hope I help you to clarify further on this issue.

        Best rgds,
        Zed

  11. Jan 29, 2010

    Roy McMorran

    Is there a way to redefine the default groups that are granted permission to any newly-created space? 

    For instance, I am using an LDAP group ("confusers") instead of the local group "confluence-users".  Every time a new space is created I have to add the group manually.

    1. Feb 05, 2010

      Zed Yap [Atlassian]

      Hi Roy,

      As far as I know the feature requested is not available yet. However, I found a feature request in JIRA:

      Please add your comments to the discussion, vote on it and add yourself as a watcher for future updates. Also, please bare in mind the following document on how we schedule features for inclusion in our products: Implementation of New Features and Improvements.

      Best rgds,
      ZEd

      1. Feb 05, 2010

        Roy McMorran

        Thanks Zed.  Voted.  4 votes in 3+ years doesn't bode well though, does it :-)

        I opened a ticket, and some source code modifications were suggested.  This pointer and some further research led me to:

        https://spaces.internet2.edu/display/InCAtlassian/Penn+State+University+Confluence+Notes+and+Source+Code+Modifications

        May give this a try at some point.

  12. Feb 02, 2010

    Anonymous

    Is there a way to include an automatically updated list of space administrators on a page (or another way users can find out who to contact)?

    1. Sep 08, 2010

      Anonymous

      This is a headache for me as well.  I have space admin rights to some spaces, so people assume I have space admin to all and I end up fielding access requests I can't service.  A list-users-with-role macro or a generated who-to-contact-to-access-this-space page would be helpful.

    2. Jun 01, 2011

      Tim Oey

      This would be a great feature. One would think this would be an easy extension of the userlister macro or a new macro.

      1. Jun 07, 2011

        Edwin Dawson [Atlassian Technical Writer]

        Hi there Tim,

        If you'd like to pursue this idea, why not create a feature request on our issue tracker for the Confluence developers?

        I hope this helps.

        Best Regards,

        Edwin Dawson
        Technical Writing Team Leader
        Atlassian
        http://www.atlassian.com

  13. Sep 16, 2010

    Anonymous

    Is it possible to give a certain user the ability to add users to a group without that user being a space admin (or sys/conf admin)?

    In other words, I would like to create a new space that is just a shell and give it to the person that requested that space. Then they can decide on which users to add as members without additional support. But I dont want this user to mess around with other space admin stuff, like changing permissions of group or being able to delete the space. Is this possible?

  14. Feb 23, 2011

    Anonymous

    Hi,

    Is it possible to provide non-monash users access to a wiki space? Since we are doing a collaborative project with another university, we are trying to give some people access to the Wiki space as external users.

    Thanks,
    Anshuman

  15. Nov 29, 2011

    Jeremy Seely

    At http://confluence.atlassian.com/display/DOC/Working+with+Spaces it is stated:

    Page permissions alone cannot keep the existence of a page secret. The page should be in a restricted space instead.

    Does this mean that you can hide the existence of pages from a specified group by placing them in a space which the group does not have view permissions?