Manage the Guest User Account
YouTrack lets you use a guest account to enable access for anonymous users.
The guest user account is enabled by default in YouTrack. This account is assigned the Observer role which grants permission to perform the following actions:
- Read Issue
- Read Comment
In other words, a guest user has access to YouTrack in read-only mode. The guest can view issues and comments that do not have visibility restrictions. Guests do not have permission to edit issue attributes, post comments, or edit comments.
Restrictions for the Free Subscription Plan
YouTrack offers a free subscription plan for up to 10 users. One of the key limitations of the free plan is that you cannot restrict access for the guest user account.
The guest account is always active and cannot be deleted or banned.
The account is granted the Observer role in the all projects. If you attempt to revoke this role, it is replaced with the Guest Issue Reader role, which grants the Read Issue permission in all projects.
You cannot restrict the visibility of issues and comments.
As a result, anonymous users have permission to view issues in all of your projects.
You always have the option to modify the permissions that are available to the guest account and grant greater access to anonymous users.
Change Guest Account Permissions
With a commercial license, you can manage the permissions to allow or restrict access for guest users in YouTrack. The free subscription plan is subject to the restrictions that are described above.
To change permissions for the guest account:
In the Access Management section of the Administration menu, select Users.
Select the guest user account in the list.
- To add permissions, you can either add the guest account to another group so it will inherit its roles, or you can add personal roles for this account without adding it to a group.
For more information, see Manage User Access.
Disable Access for Guest Users
If you do not want to allow guest users to have access to issues in your projects, you can disable access for guest accounts. This option is only available for commercial subscription plans.
To disable access for guest accounts:
Select the guest account in the Users list.
Click the Ban user button.
That's it. Now only users with registered accounts can access your YouTrack instance.