How Can I Grant a User Access to View All Projects in Jira v8.5.1?

[Amir Bali]

Hi everyone!

I’m currently using Jira Software v8.5.1 (on-premise), and I need to grant a specific user access to view all projects across our instance, regardless of the project-level permissions.

So far, I understand that project visibility is controlled by the "Browse Projects" permission within each project's Permission Scheme, but manually updating every project’s permission scheme seems inefficient.

My questions are:

1. Is there a way to grant a user (or group) global access to all projects in Jira, bypassing individual project permissions?
2. Would assigning the user a global admin role automatically give them access to view all projects, or is that strictly for configuration purposes?
3. Are there any best practices or automated solutions (e.g., using a script or bulk permission assignment) to handle this for a large number of projects?

Just want basic project visibility.

Thanks in advance for your help!

[Sam Hall]

"Is there a way to grant a user (or group) global access to all projects in Jira, bypassing individual project permissions?"

I don't think so.

"Would assigning the user a global admin role automatically give them access to view all projects, or is that strictly for configuration purposes?"

Adding the user (as in individual) to Jira System Administrators or Jira Administrators global permission would give the user permission to manage all configuration in Jira and be able to find the project in the 'Projects' section within the administration view in Jira - but it won't give them permission to browse the project via the 'View all projects' option in the 'Projects' top menu navigation or to view any issues in the projects.

Some Jira instances have a jira-administrators group which has been granted global admin permissions and is also added to all project permission schemes, but this depends entirely on what choices have been made by the admins of the instance.

"Are there any best practices or automated solutions to handle this for a large number of projects?"

Use a group like jira-administrators and make sure that this is added in any permission schemes when they are created.

Jira does not offer out-of-the-box tools for permissions management across multiple permission schemes, but you can automate using add-ons like ScriptRunner or via the REST APIs

https://docs.atlassian.com/software/jira/docs/api/REST/8.5.1/#api/2/permissionscheme-updatePermissionScheme

Edit: This is probably a better API resource for this purpose

https://docs.atlassian.com/software/jira/docs/api/REST/8.5.1/#api/2/permissionscheme-createPermissionGrant