Manage Permissions on Dashboards

Overview

Confluence has an open by default permissions ecosystem. This means that whenever you publish a page (assuming you haven't changed any of the default settings), it will be accessible by the maximum audience possible on Confluence. You can change this in your page's Restrictions window. To open this window, click the lock icon () at the top of any page.

The Overview page in your space will not have a lock icon. To access the restrictions window for your Overview page, select the More actions menu () > Restrictions.

Remember to select Apply

Whenever changing anything in the Restrictions window, remember to select Apply, or else the changes won't be saved.

There are 3 primary settings for page restrictions:

"Anyone can view and edit"
"Anyone can view, some can edit"
"Only specific people can view or edit"

Anyone can view and edit

This is the default restrictions setting and means that the given page has no restrictions on it — anyone on Confluence is welcome to the content.

If you want everyone to be able to view your page, but only a select few to be able to edit it, change the page's setting to Anyone can view, some can edit.

If you only want specific people to view your page, change the page's setting to Only specific people can view or edit and manually add the people you want to be able to view it.

Anyone can view, some can edit

By choosing Anyone can view, some can edit, anyone can still view the page, but you remove the ability to edit this page from everyone but yourself. This is a quick way to lock down who can edit a page.

From there, you can choose to add specific people who you want to edit a page.

To assign specific people the ability to edit:

Type a user's name or a group into the search bar. (You can add multiple people and groups to the search bar.)
Because anyone can already view the page in this scenario, you can only assign specific people Can edit.
Select Add to add them to the list.
Select Apply to save the changes.

To remove someone or a group, simply select the Remove link next to their name.

If you only want specific people to view your page, change the page's setting to Only specific people can view or edit and manually add the people you want to be able to view or edit it.

Only specific people can view or edit

This is the setting you want if you want to keep the page private or restricted to a subset of people who have access to the space. As soon as you select Only specific people can view or edit, the page will be locked down so that only you can view and edit it.

From there, you can choose to add specific people who you want to view or edit the page.

To assign specific people the ability to view or edit:

Type a user's name or a group into the search bar. (You can add multiple people and groups to the search bar.)
Select Can edit or Can view.
Select Add to add them to the list with the selected view or edit permission.
Select Apply to save the changes.

To remove someone or a group, simply click the Remove link next to their name.

Some other things to keep in mind

Instead of applying restrictions to individuals, you can use Confluence groups to save on typing out individual names. Learn how to create and update groups.
Confluence permissions are additive. This means that if someone is in two Confluence groups, and one group has permission to view a page while the other does not, that person will still be able to see the page because at least one of the groups they're in has permission to view it.
Confluence's permissions model is set up so that content can only be further restricted from whatever the container is set at. A page cannot have greater access than its container. This creates a ceiling of access. The ceiling for a given permission (view, edit, comment, etc.) could be the site, space, or a parent page, depending on where the restrictions are applied.
You can make certain spaces (or even your whole site) available to the public, which means that anyone on the internet would be able to access your content.
If a user doesn't have access to the page, they won't receive a notification when @ mentioned.

Admin key

As an admin, there may be times when you need to look at content that you haven’t been given permission to view. For example, you may need to unlock a restricted page or space created by an inactive user, or you may need to diagnose content access issues. Admin key allows site admins to access restricted content so they can address these needs.

Admin key is also only available on Confluence's premium plan.

What does the lock icon mean?

You can find the padlock icon that represents a page's restrictions at the top of the page. Primarily, it opens the Restrictions window, but how it displays can also give you a quick clue to who can view the page.

The lock icon does not offer any information about who can edit the page, only who can view the page.

	Anyone in the space can view this page.
	This page is set so anyone can view it, but it is inheriting view restrictions from one of its parent pages. Only people who have view access on the restricting parent page can view this page.
	Only specific people can view this page.

How restricted are restrictions?

If your page has view restrictions, it won't display for anyone who doesn't have permission to view it, neither in the page tree, nor any macros. Unless someone else has specifically been given a link to your page, they won't know it exists.

Exceptions:

If someone has shared a link to a restricted page, or provided a link to it on another page that can be viewed, the link will have the title of the page as part of the URL. However, they won't be able to tell anything else about the page, including who created it, who has permissions, or when it was updated.
Space admins can view and change the restrictions on any content within their space.
Site admins can view and change the restrictions on any content within their site.