Help Center blocks logged-in external Atlassian users despite anonymous access being enabled

Question

It works perfectly for users who are not logged into any Atlassian account. It also works perfectly for users who are logged into organization's Atlassian site.

However, if someone is logged into a different Atlassian Cloud site (i.e., they have an Atlassian account but are not a member of our organization), they receive this error when trying to access the help center:

"The website or help center may have been removed, or you may no longer have access to it."

Anyone have any ideas on how to correct this?

Arkadiusz Wroblewski · Answer

Hello and welcome to Atlassian community @Elo Hernandez

Being logged into an external Atlassian account shouldn't block access if your help center is set to anonymous.

First, ensure the user isn't being misrouted to the internal Jira root instead of the portal URL, and verify that both your global customer settings and project channel permissions are set to "Open."

You can also try manually adding their email to your customer list to force-map their global identity to your site.

Best,

Arek 🤠

Gabriela - LeanZero · Answer

The anonymous-access setting only covers people who aren't logged into any Atlassian account. Someone signed into a different Atlassian Cloud site is authenticated, so the portal doesn't treat them as anonymous — it checks whether they're a customer of your help center, and since they aren't one of your org's customers, they get blocked. That's why logged-out visitors and your own org's users are fine but an outside logged-in account isn't.

The lever here is your customer access settings — the anonymous toggle won't move it. Under the JSM product's Customer access settings (admin side), the choice is between letting in only the customers your admins or agents add, versus letting anyone with an Atlassian account access the help center and raise requests. If you want those outside logged-in users to get in, open it up there (or allow customers to create their own accounts); if you'd rather they stay out, what you're seeing is expected.

What's the exact error they get, and do you actually want those external accounts to have access? That's what decides which way to set it. Docs: help center access