How do I make a team private/closed?

[Tim Twerdahl]

I created a team under the People tab.  I then want to give that team access to a restricted space.  However, the team page says “Open Team” and “Anyone can join and edit the team,” which seems to imply that anyone can get access to the restricted space by joining the team.

Any advice on how to make this work as I expect?

[Andy Gladstone · Accepted solution]

@Tim Twerdahl welcome to the Atlassian Community. 

Confluence has two distinct functions that allow pooling of users.

• Groups: This is an admin and security functionality. By grouping users together, you can assign permissions to a group rather than individuals. For example, everyone one in the marketing department may be part of a single group, and when Marketing requires access to Spaces or Pages, an admin can set up the levels of access to all users by assigning the group to the space or page.
• Teams: This is a function of the People in the organization. Creating a Team will allow users to @ mention an entire team. Teams are more fluid and may be created for specific projects or roles. Teams cannot be assigned specific permissions and are not managed through the admin portal. They are created and managed under the people directiory.

I think in your case you may need to create a GROUP and not a TEAM.

Hope this helps!

[Andy Gladstone]

@Tim Twerdahl if my answer helped you, please click the Accept answer button so that others looking for the same content can more easily locate it. Thank you!

[Phil M]

@Andy Gladstone - the lack of the ability to make a team private is a significant oversight.  The lack of the ability for an org admin to be able to administer such teams is also a significant oversight.  If a team ends up with no members what happens?  I'm assuming it will stay around forever with no ability to administer that team.  Org admins should be able to view, edit, change, assign new owners, etc.. any and all groups in an organization.  Org settings should also be able to control whether users in the org can create these kinds of teams.