Guests cannot search within Confluence
Asked by Adrian Bass:

I am trying to sort out a permissions issue. My guest has access to the Confluence space, but is unable to search within the search bar. Any ideas?![MicrosoftTeams-image (1).png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/289134i9F8958E9DE167FC6/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "MicrosoftTeams-image (1).png")


Answers:
author: Ash Yadav
body: Hi [@Adrian Bass](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/5331017)

How many spaces do you have and are you referring to anonymous access for your confluence instance?

<https://support.atlassian.com/confluence-cloud/docs/set-up-public-access/>

Do any of your spaces allow anonymous access within the permission schemes?

Kind Regards,

Ash

comments: author: Adrian Bass
body: I have a total of 3 spaces but the particular group of individuals only have access to the one. They can search if you access the KB and go to all content. That search function is available and will work, but the "Home Page" of the Knowledge Base search bar will not work for them. Its an odd circumstance. Picture attached to show where they can search. Yes they are able to access anonymously.

![Capture.PNG](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/289190iB034756848FEA22F/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "Capture.PNG")


author: Ash Yadav
body: Hi [@Adrian Bass](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/5331017)

Upon further research, it seems like there are restrictions in place for guests which are better highlighted here:

[What can guests see and do in Confluence? \| Confluence Cloud \| Atlassian Support](https://support.atlassian.com/confluence-cloud/docs/what-can-guests-see-and-do-on-confluence/)

Specifically:

What can guests do in Confluence? {#toc-hId--412594958}
-------------------------------------------------------

*Guests are a different type of user than a regular Confluence user --- they can only have access to one space at a time (assigned by an admin) and that access has certain limitations.*

### Guests have limited access to internal user info {#toc-hId-277966516}

*Confluence blocks guests' access to the [people directory](https://support.atlassian.com/confluence-cloud/docs/search-the-people-directory/), which contains site-wide user information.*

*Functions that query the people directory of the entire site include:*

* *@ mentions*

* *the **Teams** tab in the top nav bar*

* *user search*

* *user pickers*

*These are systemically blocked for all guests.*

Your original screenshot shows advanced search in Confluence so it could explain why they're not able to use it as it would also include user profiles and users that may have mentioned something related to the search query.

KR,

Ash


author: Adrian Bass
body: I understand what you are saying. The only caveat to that is I made the KB anonymous access. I utilized my own personal email and I was able to search within the advanced search field.


author: Ash Yadav
body: Hi [@Adrian Bass](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/5331017)

So you have another account mimicking a guest if I understand correctly?

I would recommend making sure your personal account that is meant to imitate a guest is correctly added to the guest section here \<YOURSITEURL.NET\>/wiki/admin/permissions/global?tab=external

You can then compare to see if your personal account is also experiencing the same issue with advanced search.

KR,

Ash


Tags: cloud

confluence-cloud