The "Watch" functionality isn't showing

[Steffen Vester]

Hello community..

We are using Confluence (version 7.0.1) and one of our users of our Confluence page (we only have one), e-mailed me that the "Watch" button / functionality isn't there anymore. He also sent me a screenshot and afterwards I tested it myself, and I couldn't find "Watch" anymore myself.

When I'm logged in (as an administrator) the watch button is there, but if I switch to another account who is just a regular user, the button is gone. A month or two ago, it was possible to use the watch functionality also as a regular user.

In the meantime, I didn't reconfigure anything or change anything so I have no clue why the button is now gone.

We are using a free macro called "HideElements", that can hide buttons, texts and so on, but even if I remove the macro entirely from one page it dosn't help. I just thought i'd mention it.

Hope someone can help me.

Sincerely Steffen

[Fabienne Gerhard · Accepted solution]

Hi @Steffen Vester - do you use the latest version of HideElements? They have the awesome functionality to hide elements for a whole space and even globally! -> see documentation

For more information I link @Sven Schatter _Lively Apps_ from Lively Apps to this question 😁😊

[Steffen Vester]

Thanks for the heads up. I just bought the newest HideElements app to get the new functionality. The global and space level is awesome..

[Sven Schatter _Lively Apps_ · Accepted solution]

Thanks for summoning me @Fabienne Gerhard and hi @Steffen Vester! :)

Since you say that the watch button doesn't show up for the user, but does for admins, I'm 99% sure that this has nothing to do with HideElements (as it doesn't take permissions into account). But just to make 100% sure, you could go into the Manage Apps screen and disable HideElements for a minute:

From a quick Google search I've found a similar thread here on the Community, where the issue seems to have been related to Comala Workflows. So it might indeed have to do with one of your apps.

As a further troubleshooting step, it might also be helpful to reproduce the error and then look at your Browser's Console, to see if there are any JavaScript errors. If there are indeed errors, the error messages might point you to what app/configuration/etc. is causing this.

Hope this helps! :)

Cheers,
Sven

[Steffen Vester]

Hi @Sven Schatter _Lively Apps_ 

Cheers for your reply.

I tried to disable HideElements, but it didn't change anything - just as you expected.

I already saw the thread about Comala Workflows, but I'm not using Comala or actually any other app, other than HideElements. The only other app in my "Manage apps" is Atlassian Troubleshooting and Support Tools, Aslassian Universal Plugin Manager and Cloud Migration Assistant for Confluence, which I/we didn't install, they came with the original installation i guess.

I took a screendump of my console, when i enter our Confluence in incognito mode in Google Chrome. This is what i get:

I'm no expert on code or anything alike, but the term "deprecated" or "deprecation" is shown several places. So maybe I just need to update our Confluence from 7.0.1 to 7.5.0 - could that be the fix? Even though it seems unlikely that being on an old version would suddently remove a feature/functionality.

Any thoughts?

[Sven Schatter _Lively Apps_]

Hi Steffen,

First off, good to hear that this is not a HideElements bug! The warnings in your screenshot are pretty normal (and don't do any harm). Only if there were any errors (red messages) we would've gotten anything out of it. So this means we don't have any new information.

I have to admit that I'm a bit puzzled as well now, as I'm not aware of a vanilla Confluence feature that would allow the watch button to be disabled based on permissions. But since you say there's no other apps in your instance it has to be some kind configuration.

You said that you were able to see the button while logged in as an admin and that it was gone when you logged in as a non-admin user. I guess it would be interesting to see whether the button shows up for that user again if you give them admin permissions. That would confirm that it has to be some kind permission setting. But as I already mentioned, I'm not aware of a setting in vanilla Confluence that would let you do that (but maybe a feature like this does exist and I just don't know it).

Cheers,
Sven

[Steffen Vester]

Hi @Sven Schatter _Lively Apps_ 

I just tested user groups cause of what you wrote, and that was a breakthrough. My own testuser, which were in no user groups, couldn't see the "Watch" button. Then I added it to the user group "confluence-user" and then the "Watch" button was visible. Just to be 100% clear "confluence-user" isn't the admin group, it's just for visitors who created a profile.

After that I removed it from "confluence-user" again and the "Watch" button is still visible.. So it's like it somehow refreshed the user rights, cause I'm basicly back to where it all started - other than it works again as it should :-).

I just don't understand why those who create a profile dosn't automatically end up in "confluence-user" and what has changed, since the button was visible some months ago even without our users were in the user group.

Do you know how to funnel new profiles into "confluence-user" automatically?

Thanks in advance, and thanks for getting me here!

[Fabienne Gerhard]

Hi @Steffen Vester - you can add user groups e.g. "confluence-user" in the settings for your user directories as only or as one of the standard groups for any new user added to system. Depends on the configs of your user directories.

See Example for LDAP config here.

[Steffen Vester]

Thanks @Fabienne Gerhard - it's all starting to make sense again ;)

Only problem about adding all users to "confluence-user" is that it counts towards our total number of licensed users, and theres quite a lot of users with a profile, so we will have to upgrade the number of users, which will be quite expensive.

Therefore it would be good to figure out why it was possible to see the watch button before, without being a part of "confluence-user" and why it's not possible anymore.. If either of you have any insights or thoughts, please share them.

Otherwise thank you for helping me to understand what was wrong, and at least I have a workaround at the moment.

[Fabienne Gerhard]

Oh ok - I think we are on the way. But I'm still a little bit confused.

My first thought was, you are using anonymous users for access - so there is no way showing the 'Watch' Button, cause Confluence would have no idea where to send the e-mail to.  There are several discussion around that in community e.g. around this topic. Especially when you said users would count toward your licences when be added to confluence-users.

What confuses is that they saw the 'Watch' Button before.... This is really strange. They would count to licence no matter what group you add them to 🤯

[Steffen Vester]

We have activated anonymous users in our Confluence, yes, but those who reported that the "watch" button disappeared have a user profile.

So if someone visits our Confluence page, and create a user, they should not be able to see the "Watch" button, unless they are put in a user group?

Two of our users, who are not a part of a user group - and as far as I know, never have been - reported that they suddently couldn't see the watch button anymore. If they needed to be part of a user group (and count towards licenses) to be able to see the watch button, then it's really strange. 

If that's the case, then one of my colleagues must have put them in a user group for some reason, and then removed them again recently. Otherwise I have no explanation of what has happend.. :)

[Fabienne Gerhard]

Seriously this is really strange... 😅

Creating a user means they create a local user right? Imho this would mean they create a user which have 'global permission - can use' rights which would count towards your licence.... so that they can see your Confluence. 

If the users don't "create" a user but only enter your Confluence for see content - they have anonymous access which would solve the mentioned problem from above with non existing Watch Button.... 

I think your explanation may be right - have a look at your log-files 

yoursystemname/admin/auditlogging.action and search for the date around the disappearing button, you will see if a user was set to a group (hopefully) 🕵️‍♀️🕵️‍♂️

[Gaby]

Hallo Steffen, 

das Makro kann Seitenspezifisch eingestellt werden als auch für den gesamten Bereich. Schau mal bei dir als Bereichsadmin unter Bereich konfigurieren - Gestaltung - HideElements - Page MetaElements --> Breadcrumb und Toolbar --> WATCH --> einschalten (ist wahrscheinlich ausgeschaltet.......

Gruß

Gaby

[Steffen Vester]

Hello Gaby. There was a lot of answers in here from other people, I don't know where those replies are now (cause they're obviously not around anymore).

I got the issue solved. It's something about user rights, cause the person who can see the "watch" functionality, needs to be in our "Confluence-user" group. Before everyone could see this, as long as they were logged in. So I guess something has changed.

But now I know why and I'm able to work around it.

Thanks for your answer

[Gaby]

Hallo Steffen, 

danke für Deine Rückantwort. Und - okay, dann ist ja alles im grünen Bereich bei Euch.

Gruß

Gaby