Regular users do not see "+ Add Watchers" button

Question

For some reason, regular users in my spaces are unable to see the "+ Add Watchers" button when clicking on the eyeball button.

I found this closed thread within the Jira forum but it refers to "Projects" before it was changed to "Spaces".

I don't see any "Permissions" section within Space Settings or "Manage Watchers" for that matter.

Please advise.

Shaik Riyaz · Answer

Hi @Nicolas Azizian ,

Why this happens:

In Team-managed spaces (formerly Team-managed projects), traditional Permission Schemes do not exist. Permissions are managed under Access instead of "Permissions".

By default, the Member role can only view watchers. Only Space Administrators can add or remove watchers.

How to resolve it:

* Go to Space settings → Access.
* Click Manage roles in the top-right corner.
* Edit an existing custom role or click Create role.
* Check the permission: Add or remove work item watchers.
* Save the role, then assign your regular users to it on the Access page.

Thanks!!

Arkadiusz Wroblewski · Answer

Hello and Welcome

You don't need to make everyone an administrator. In team-managed spaces, go to Space settings → Access → Manage roles, create a custom role with the “Add or remove work item watchers” permission, and assign it to affected users. Custom roles aren’t available on the Free plan.

Atlassian documentation

Best,

Arek 🤠🧙‍♂️

Nicolas Azizian · Answer

I just found this page regarding Add Watchers and Vote buttons.

Am I reading this right in that you can only add watchers in a team-managed space when you're an administrator.

If this is true, this should be fixed!

Adding a watcher should NOT be an admin-only option.