personal spaces now public

David Pasternak

Hi everybody,

we migrate our OnPrem Confluence to Confluence Cloud. Before in OnPrem Confluence many of my colleagues uses personal spaces to store information for them own. So nobody else of the colleagues see this spaces.

But now in Confluence Cloud these spaces are all public now. But why?

Also new users which wasn't created in Confluence OnPrem are affected of this. The personal space which is now automatically created for new users is public in standard. 

Why and how can we change this?

Thanks and regards,
David

Shikha Verma_xy1o3z

Hi David,

When migrating from OnPrem Confluence to Confluence Cloud, the default permissions and space visibility settings can sometimes change, leading to personal spaces becoming public by default. Here’s why this might be happening and how you can change it:

Why Personal Spaces Became Public in Confluence Cloud

1. Default Space Permissions in Confluence Cloud:

   • In Confluence Cloud, the default setting for new personal spaces is often more permissive than in OnPrem instances. This might be why personal spaces have become public after the migration.

2. Migration Process:

   • During the migration from OnPrem to Cloud, the specific permissions settings for personal spaces may not have been preserved, especially if the permissions model between the two environments differs. This can result in spaces becoming public by default.

3. Default Global Permissions:

   • Confluence Cloud might have different global permissions configured compared to your OnPrem instance. If the global permissions are set to allow public access by default, this would extend to personal spaces as well.
     

     
     How to Change Personal Space Visibility Settings

     1. Adjust Default Permissions for New Personal Spaces

     • Admin Settings:
       • Navigate to the Confluence Cloud Admin console.
       • Go to Space Permissions or Global Permissions.
       • Adjust the default permissions for new personal spaces so that only the space owner has access by default.
     • User Group Settings:
       • Review the permissions for user groups, ensuring that broad groups like "confluence-users" do not have access to personal spaces by default.

     2. Update Permissions for Existing Personal Spaces

     • Bulk Update:
       • Unfortunately, there’s no out-of-the-box way to bulk update all personal spaces in Confluence Cloud. Each user will need to manually adjust the permissions for their space.
     • Instruct Users:
       • Guide your colleagues through the process of setting their personal space to private:
         • Go to their personal space.
         • Click on Space Settings in the sidebar.
         • Under Permissions, remove all users/groups except for themselves.
     • Automation:
       • If you have scripting capabilities or access to Confluence Cloud APIs, consider writing a script to iterate through all personal spaces and update permissions programmatically.

     3. Educate New Users

     • Onboarding Process:

       • As part of the onboarding process for new users, inform them about the default visibility of their personal space and guide them on how to make it private.

     • Template for New Personal Spaces:

       • If possible, create a default template or configuration for new personal spaces that sets the correct permissions automatically upon creation.