Anonymous Group Not Available
Asked by dianals:

In my Confluence, and it may be something accidentally done a few years back, there is no group or user for Anonymous. I need to be able to open up a few spaces to public access but now can not find a way to do that. Is there a way to restore the Anonymous group back?


Answers:
author: Nic Brough -Adaptavist-
body: I just thought of something new.

Do you have [public links](https://confluence.atlassian.com/ge/public-links-979425312.html) enabled? If you do, this disables the anonymous access function - you can only have one or the other!

comments: author: dianals
body: [@Nic Brough -Adaptavist-](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/781454) --- in my support ticket with Atlassian, it turned out that had been activated and was why the Anonymous function was no longer working.


author: dianals
body: Thanks everyone for your assistance, I've got a ticket with Atlassian open now to try to figure out where my Anonymous options went :)

comments: author: Patds
body: Solved it in the same way. Thank you.


author: Nic Brough -Adaptavist-
body: Ah, no, the "anonymous" group is not a group, it's inserted by the code and handled differently. You should remove the anonymous group you have added, as it is misleading.

It has to be done that way because a group is a list of users, and the point of "anonymous" is that you do not know who the user is - you can't put someone into a group if you can't identify them!

So, on to the solution. To allow anonymous access to a space, you do not use groups. You use the "anonymous access" section at the bottom of the space permissions page, below the users and groups sections.

If that section does not appear, or is greyed out, then your Confluence does not have the required **global permission** to allow anonymous access - if you enable that, then the anonymous section will become usable in each space.

Note that I cannot remember if the free plan Confluence Cloud allows anonymous access - that may also be hiding it.

comments: author: dianals
body: Hi [@Nic Brough -Adaptavist-](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/781454) - thanks for your help here. I am on the Standard Plan and have more permissions controls. I've attached two screenshots of my Global Permissions screen and then a Space Permissions screen. I still seem to be missing anywhere to enable Anonymous.![Confluence-Global-Permissions.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/135739i3291BD8140C22869/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "Confluence-Global-Permissions.png")![Confluence-Space-Permissions.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/135740i3C381CEF67678B80/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "Confluence-Space-Permissions.png")


author: Nic Brough -Adaptavist-
body: Hmm, on the global permissions page, there should be a tab called "anonymous access" between JSM and Apps.

I do not know why you do not have it - it appears on the free version (but with a warning that it can't be changed) and in all the standard Cloud systems I've got admin access to (even the ones where I am only a Confluence admin).

So I'm a bit stuck. Maybe get another admin to look at it?


author: Laura Holton _ACE Rotterdam_
body: Hi there,

Quick question, are you the space admin for your Confluence?

"If you're a space admin, you can assign a set of space permissions to a group rather than to each individual user. And as a page creator with 'Add/Delete Restrictions' permission, you can also add and remove page restrictions for groups."

If you have the appropriate access you should be able to set up a third group outside of the two default Confluence groups for anonymous users.

Let me know if I can help further ?

All the best,

Laura

comments: author: dianals
body: Hi Laura,

Thanks for your assistance here. I am the admin for my whole confluence account and I did create a new Anonymous group but still when I try to access that space, I get the requirement to log in to Confluence.

Is an account required even for public access?

Thanks for your help here.

Diana


Tags: cloud

confluence-cloud