Why can I add someone to a restricted space as an editor, but not as a viewer?

[Ian Guyette]

I help admin a few spaces at work, and I've run into what seems like a pretty odd permissions issue. The situation is this: 

A company-wide space has a specific page that has restricted view and edit permissions. Only those invited may view or edit the page, and I typically invite users to view, not edit. They are not required to be in a specific group, and dozens of users have been added this way, as long as they're in the company domain. 

So, I add a user "John" and it turns out John cant be added except for as an editor. I only found this out accidentally, as adding him as a viewer seems to work until I go and check the user access list and see that he's not there. If I add him as an editor, he shows up in the list when I inspect everyone who can access the page. Again, he's one of a couple editors and really shouldn't be one, but it's the only way I can add him. It's further bizarre as he doesn't have edit permissions in the space, which is expected, but I cannot understand why he could only be added as an editor in this case. 

Hopefully I'm missing something but this feels like a bug. Any ideas? 

[Fabian Lim · Accepted solution]

Hi @Ian Guyette

Can the user see any other pages in the same space?

I would check the space permissions.  See if the user has been added as an individual and check whether he may have add but not view page permissions.

Link: https://support.atlassian.com/confluence-cloud/docs/assign-space-permissions/

The next step would be to contact atlassian support.

Regards