XenForo permissions explained: groups, forums and "Never"
Almost every "the add-on does nothing" question is a permission. How user groups, forum permissions and Never combine, and how to check what a member can do.
Updated 4 min read By the D.C Style team
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Permissions decide who can do what on your forum. When a freshly installed add-on seems to do nothing, a permission is usually the reason: an add-on's new permissions start switched off for every group, so nobody can see or use the feature until you allow it. This guide explains how XenForo's permissions fit together, where to set them, and the tool that tells you exactly what one member can do.
User groups: who permissions belong to
Permissions are set per user group, not per member. Every member has one primary group, usually Registered, and can also be in any number of secondary groups. XenForo starts you with four groups:
- Unregistered / Unconfirmed: guests, and members who have not confirmed their email yet.
- Registered: everyone with a confirmed account.
- Moderating and Administrative: added as secondary groups for your staff.
A member gets the combined permissions of all their groups. That is why an administrator usually has Registered as the primary group and Administrative as a secondary one.
Yes, No and Never
Each permission in a group can be set to one of three values:
| Value | What it means |
|---|---|
| Yes | Members of this group can do it. |
| No | This group does not grant it, but another of the member's groups still can. |
| Never | Nobody in this group can do it, even if another of their groups says Yes. |
Warning: Use Never sparingly. Setting Never on Registered also blocks your staff, because they are Registered too. In most cases No is what you want.
Where permissions are set
- Groups & permissions > User group permissions: the site-wide setting for each group. This is where you will do most of your work.
- Groups & permissions > User permissions: exceptions for one member.
- Groups & permissions > Node permissions (also under Forums > Node permissions): changes for one forum or category. Here each permission also has Inherit, which keeps whatever comes from the parent forum or the group's site-wide setting. No in a forum removes a Yes this group would otherwise inherit there.
On a long permission page, the Quick set menu next to a section can set every permission in it to the same value at once.
After installing an add-on: grant its permissions
- Open Groups & permissions > User group permissions and click the group that should have the feature, usually Registered.
- Scroll to the add-on's own section. For example, Story adds a Stories section with permissions such as Can create stories, and Forum Statistics adds Can view forum statistics.
- Set the permissions you want to Yes and click Save.
- If guests should see the feature too, do the same for Unregistered / Unconfirmed.
Each add-on's setup guide in Add-on Guides lists the permissions it adds and which ones to grant first, for example Set up Story and Show Forum Statistics on your forum.
Check what a member can actually do
When a member says they cannot do something and you are not sure why, do not guess. Open Groups & permissions > Analyze permissions, enter their username and click Analyze. You can also choose a forum to see the result there.
For every permission, it shows the final value and how each of the member's groups and their own user permissions contributed to it. A Never from a forgotten secondary group, or a forum set to No, stands out straight away.
Tip: Permission changes take effect once XenForo has finished rebuilding permissions after you save. If a member still cannot see a feature after you set Yes, analyze their permissions before changing anything else. If the result says Yes, the cause is somewhere else. Work through Installed an add-on but nothing shows up?
Still stuck? Open a support ticket with the add-on name, the member's user groups and a screenshot of the Analyze permissions result, and we will help you find the setting.