Jira Maintenance: Turn on read-only mode for all users except admins?

[Al]

Whats is the quickest way to Turn on read-only mode for all users except admins?

[Arkadiusz Wroblewski]

Hello and welcome to Community @Al 

Jira lacks a global "read-only" switch, so your approach depends on your maintenance goals.

For a quick maintenance lockdown, temporarily remove your standard user groups from Application access under Admin settings. This blocks normal users from entering Jira entirely while keeping it open for admins. If users must still browse issues without making changes, copy your current permission scheme, strip out the create, edit, and comment permissions for regular users, and temporarily assign this new read-only scheme to your projects.

Best,

Arkadiusz🤠

[Christos Markoulatos -Relational-]

Hi @Al welcome!

There's no native "read-only mode" toggle in Jira Data Center, but the quickest and most reversible approach for maintenance is to control Application Access rather than touching permission schemes.

The cleanest method: go to Administration > User Management > Groups and create a new group, for example jira-temp-access-group, then add only yourself and any other admins to it. Next, go to Administration > Applications > Application Access, set that new group as the default, and remove the standard groups like jira-software-users from the list. After this, only members of your temporary group will be able to see anything inside Jira. All other users will still be able to log in but won't be able to see or do anything. Users with Global administrator permissions will still be able to perform admin actions, including adding themselves back to the access group. This does not touch any permission schemes, project roles, or user directory settings, so reversing it is a one-step operation: just add jira-software-users (or your usual group) back to the Application Access list and everything returns to normal.

If your goal is a softer read-only state rather than a full lockout (users can browse but not edit), the alternative is creating a new permission scheme that only grants Browse Projects to your regular users, while retaining edit permissions for admins, then associating that scheme with your projects via Project Settings > Permissions > Actions > Use a different scheme. This works but scales poorly if you have many projects, and rolling it back means reassociating every project with the original scheme.

For a maintenance window, the Application Access approach is the right call. It's fast, fully reversible, and doesn't require touching a single scheme.

Hope this helps!

Helpful links:

• https://support.atlassian.com/jira/kb/how-to-restrict-user-access-in-jira-without-changing-schemes-or-user-directory-settings-internal-or-external/
• https://support.atlassian.com/jira/kb/prevent-all-project-edits-with-a-read-only-permission-scheme-in-jira/
• https://confluence.atlassian.com/adminjiraserver/manage-group-access-to-applications-938847042.html