Adding Anonymous Access to Space

[Jana Rasmussen]

On some of our Confluence Cloud spaces, we have the Anonymous Access option at the bottom.  On others, that Anonymous Access option is no longer listed (the Permissions page shows Groups and Individual Users).  How do I add the Anonymous Access so that we can make it a public page?

I read this and understand how to do it when the option is already listed, but if there is no Anonymous listed for the space, how do I add that/bring it back?

https://support.atlassian.com/confluence-cloud/docs/make-a-space-public/

[Brant Schroeder · Accepted solution]

Are all the cloud spaces on the same cloud instance?  Do you have more than one cloud instance?

[Jana Rasmussen]

They are all on the same instance. 

There used to be the Anonymous option available in Space Permissions when a space was created, but I just did a test by creating a new space.  The Default permissions are set and there is no "Anonymous" at the bottom of the page.  This makes me think that there was something turned on/off in global settings, but I can't find where that is.  I am a site admin (but still new and learning and I'm not sure there is anyone else in our company who knows it any better than I do). There are a few other site admins - is it possible that one of them made some kind of change that I can't see or access?  We have Jira, but I don't use it - could a change made to our Jira account have affected our Confluence account?

[Brant Schroeder]

@Jana Rasmussen 

1. Choose the cog icon at top right of the screen, then choose Confluence Admin.
2. Choose Global Permissions in the left-hand panel.
3. Choose Edit Permissions.
4. In the 'Anonymous Access' section you can change the setting.

[Jana Rasmussen]

HI @Brant Schroeder 

I have walked through all of that but there is non "Anonymous Access" section here. I don't understand why since we used to have Anonymous options at the bottom of each space setting.  I'm not sure what changed or when.  How can I add Anonymous Access when I don't have the option to enable?

[Brant Schroeder]

Are you a confluence admin or a space admin?   Are you looking at the global permissions or just space permissions?

[Jana Rasmussen]

[Jana Rasmussen]

@Brant Schroeder I am a site admin with Confluence. I am looking in Global Permissions. I have seen the Anonymous option in space permissions previously, but now it's not there, even when I start a new space.

[Brant Schroeder]

Did you happen to change your plan?  Are you now on a free plan?

[Jana Rasmussen]

That's a great question - I am not the organization admin, and was told that we pay $10 per user, but they may have been thinking about Jira. We do have only 10 users right now, so it's possible that someone changed the plan to a free plan.  Is there no other reason why we might have had Anonymous option in space permissions previously and now it's not even in global permissions?

I set up a new Free Confluence account using a different account, but invited my work account to join (I'm working on some training for my company and wanted a few different users in the system so I can show them different things).  But that shouldn't have affected my work's Confluence Account in any way - but I noticed the Anonymous options wasn't there after that.

[Jana Rasmussen]

I checked our Billing.  I can confirm we are on the paid Standard Plan.  NOT the free plan.

[Brant Schroeder]

Can the organization admin see the anonymous setting?

[Jana Rasmussen]

She checked and she cannot see it either.  I have submitted a ticket to the Help Desk to see if they can help me figure out why we are paying for Confluence but don't seem to have all the features available to us.  If you have any other ideas, please let me know! Thanks for your help and walking me through those things today!

[Jana Rasmussen]

I opened a ticket with Atlassian and found out the following from Matheus:

Public Links

We now have a new feature in Confluence Cloud called Public Links. It is being activated gradually in instances. 

Public Links are a great way of sharing just some pages with people outside your organization. They create a special URL link that redirects people to a view-only document. Please refer to the following document for more information:

• Public Links: https://confluence.atlassian.com/ge/public-links-979425312.html

Instances cannot have both Public Links and Anonymous Access enabled

Once you activate the Public Links feature, you will no longer be able to use anonymous access. By checking the configurations in your instance, I see that someone has activated the Public Links.

[Paul Brassard]

@Brant Schroeder I like that there is a note saying they cannot be both enabled at the same time on the Public Links page, but it's frustrating that the same note is not also on the Anonymous Access page - https://support.atlassian.com/confluence-cloud/docs/set-up-public-access/

It's frustrating because when troubleshooting, I feel that few people would think to look on the page of the feature that it is colliding with, because all they know is that they want public access and this page says how to do it. You would have to already know that these two features are not compatible to think to look to the Public Links page, or stumble upon that page after pulling hair out and grasping at straws.

Could that note be added to the Anonymous Access page please?

Cheers

[Brant Schroeder]

I will see if I can get Atlassian to do that.

[Paul Brassard]

Thank you! :D

[Nicole Hatch]

Thank you so much for your post! I have gone over things for days and then I found the one line that helped so much!

Once you activate the Public Links feature, you will no longer be able to use anonymous access.

Thank you so much for pointing it out!

[Stephen Lawrence]

How is the public links reverted so that anonymous access can be selected?

[Brant Schroeder]

You just toggle them off in the same place you turn them on.  https://confluence.atlassian.com/ge/public-links-979425312.html

[Stephen Lawrence]

thank you so much!