Issue Description I've created a Confluence space and activated all the settings that I understand are necessary to make this space publicly viewable through shareable links, public links, and anonymous access features. However, when I share the space link with anyone outside my company or even open the link in an incognito/private browser tab, I cannot see the space content. Error Messages Received * "Open in Confluence (opens new window) to view content" * "You don't have access to view this content" What I've Already Tried * Enabled shareable link functionality * Configured public link settings * Activated anonymous access permissions * Verified all space-level permissions I'm aware of What I Need I need to know how to actually make the entire space and all its content (pages, sub-pages, and resources) available for public viewing without requiring any type of Confluence login or authentication. Questions * Are there additional permission settings I might have missed? * Is there a specific configuration for truly anonymous public access? * Are there organization-level settings that might be overriding my space settings? * Is complete public access even possible with my Confluence plan/version? Any guidance on the correct step-by-step process to achieve genuine public access would be greatly appreciated.

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Making Confluence Space Truly Public/Anonymous

Lívia Fernandes Bomfim

Issue Description

I've created a Confluence space and activated all the settings that I understand are necessary to make this space publicly viewable through shareable links, public links, and anonymous access features. However, when I share the space link with anyone outside my company or even open the link in an incognito/private browser tab, I cannot see the space content.

Error Messages Received

"Open in Confluence (opens new window) to view content"
"You don't have access to view this content"

What I've Already Tried

Enabled shareable link functionality
Configured public link settings
Activated anonymous access permissions
Verified all space-level permissions I'm aware of

What I Need

I need to know how to actually make the entire space and all its content (pages, sub-pages, and resources) available for public viewing without requiring any type of Confluence login or authentication.

Questions

Are there additional permission settings I might have missed?
Is there a specific configuration for truly anonymous public access?
Are there organization-level settings that might be overriding my space settings?
Is complete public access even possible with my Confluence plan/version?

Any guidance on the correct step-by-step process to achieve genuine public access would be greatly appreciated.

Accepted answers

All comments

arielei

Hello @Lívia Fernandes Bomfim

First you need to understand that even if the space is publicly open, a user will need to have their own Atlassian ID, for example if i have a gmail user, i will need to create for myself an Atlassian ID and then i would be able to access it.

now to best answer your questions:

Yes, if you are using Atlassian Guard then there might be a security blocker
No, once you set your space to anonymous - it is opened globally.
Yes - like i mentioned in A.I 1 - Atlassian Guard can prevent this.
Yes.

Collista Lewingdon

Good morning. When looking at Global Permissions > Anonymous Access it shows that setting global permissions will allow any space admin to make any space on the site accessible by anonymous users. But that you must still enable individual spaces for anonymous access. Meaning every space will have to have anonymous access activated from the actual space itself. Hope this helps.

2025-05-28 08_27_37-Global permissions -.png

Kristian Klima_gtcuat

Hello @Lívia Fernandes Bomfim and welcome to the Community.

Just verifying... In Confluence Settings > Security > Global permissions, did you allow Anonymous users to Use Confuence?

If you then allow Anonymous access on the space level, then it should allow anyone on the internet to access the space.

HOWEVER

In this configuration, you don't need to use public links. In fact, it may be detrimental to accessing Confluence from such a link.

The thing with public links is that they're intended to share a one-off page by creating a page specific, anonymized link.

As a result - even if you have a public link for every single page in the space, you will not be able to navigate the space as a content unit. You will always have many individual, indepent links.

Gerusa Lobo

Hello @Lívia Fernandes Bomfim

As @arielei have commented, there is a data security policy on Organization level on Guard that could be configured to prevent anonymous access in jira or confluence.

https://support.atlassian.com/security-and-access-policies/docs/what-is-a-data-security-policy/

Regards.

Collista Lewingdon

@arielei The exception is if the space has anonymous access. Then users will not need an Atlassian ID to log in. And to do that they need to control anonymous access in both global permissions AND space permissions.

Gerusa Lobo

Hi @Collista Lewingdon

Besides any configuration in Confluence, the Data Policy in Guard could prevent it.

"Prevent anonymous access

The anonymous access rule allows you to prevent people who are not logged in from viewing pages and issues covered by a data security policy.

People will not be able to view content covered by the policy without being logged in with the appropriate permissions."

https://support.atlassian.com/security-and-access-policies/docs/prevent-anonymous-access/

Regards.

Collista Lewingdon

@Gerusa Lobo I guess the question that we should be asking the original poster is if when she tries to open the link if she is being prompted to log in? Since that statement was not in the original post I assumed that it was not related to Atlassian Guard since documentation for Atlassian Guard states "If a user attempts to access a page or issue covered by this policy via a direct URL they’ll see a prompt to log in."

@Lívia Fernandes Bomfim When you try to open the page via the shareable link are you prompted to log in?

Maksym Babenko_TypeSwitch_

Hi Lívia,

If you want the entire space to be publicly accessible, you’ll likely need to check site-level anonymous access, space permissions, and any org-level restrictions that may override the space settings.

But if your goal is to publish only selected Confluence pages publicly, you could also use a publishing app instead of relying only on native public links.

Our app Public Pages for Confluence may be relevant here.

It lets you publish selected Confluence pages as public web pages with clean URLs, branding, SEO settings, analytics, and custom domain support.

This can be useful when you want external users to access documentation without a Confluence login, while keeping the rest of the space private.

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