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Default Guest Permission for data rooms

What it is and how it works

Eefennie Fam avatar
Written by Eefennie Fam
Updated this week

The Default Guest Permission in data rooms is the default permission that applies to new guests who do not have an assigned permission.

You will be asked to choose a default guest permission when creating your data room.

If your data room has already been created and you wish to change the default guest permission, you can do so in Settings.

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What are the various default guest permissions?

  • No Access: Guests will not be able to access the data room at all. You may use this default guest permission to add guests to your data room, while limiting their access. Learn more

  • View: This allows guests to view, but not to print or download the files.

  • Print: This allows guests to view and print, but not to download files.

  • Download (PDF): This allows guests to view, print and download files in PDF formats with Dynamic Watermark applied (if enabled).

  • Download (Original): This allows users to view, print and download files in the files' original format.

  • Edit: This allows users to add, view, print and download files or sub-folders. They will also be able to rename, replace, delete, reorder, move and copy files or sub-folders, as well as restore file versions.


How does Default Guest Permission work?

Default Guest Permission comes into play during the following three scenarios.

Scenario 1: When new guests access your data room without an assigned permission

If your data room's Access setting is either "Only people from email domains I specify" or "Anyone with the link (with email notification)", guests can access your data room without your explicit approval for each and every guest.

When such guests enter your data room for the first time, they are added as a new data room guest with the default guest permission.

If you want to assign a different permission to these guests (that is not the default guest permission), you can either:

Note: As a data room owner, you can change the Default Guest Permission setting in the data room settings at any time.

Note: Depending on your data room’s Access setting, guests may need to submit an access request before being added automatically.

Scenario 2: When you approve someone's request to access your data room

If someone who wasn’t invited to your data room tries to access it, they’ll see an option to request access.

As the data room owner, you can now review and manage all access requests from the Access Requests tab under Guests.

From this page, you can:

  • Search requests by guest name, email, or data room

  • Approve, deny, or delete single or multiple requests

When you approve a request, the guest is added to your data room with the Default Guest Permission.


They’ll receive an automatic email notification confirming access.

Note: This scenario applies regardless of your data room’s Access setting (e.g., “Only people I specify,” “People from specific domains,” or “Anyone with the link”).

Scenario 3: When you add new guests to your data room

When you add new guests to your data room, the Permission field is pre-selected so that it is consistent with your data room's Default Guest Permission setting.

If you wish, you can choose a different setting for Permission when adding new guests.


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