I have a user who stumbled onto the Security tab of Document Properties. She became upset at seeing the names of people who should no longer have access to the records and unchecked “All readers and above” under “Who can read this document.” Now, two of her documents are no longer visible to anyone, including me.
How do I regain access to these documents?
There is no Reader or Author field on the form. I do not have access to the server to do any SA tasks.
TIA
Mark
Subject: They are not visible to her either?
Subject: RE: They are not visible to her either?
No, she did not check anyone’s name after unchecking “all Readers and above,” so she herself cannot see the docs, either. Since not even the servers have read access now, I’m not terribly hopeful.
Subject: RE: They are not visible to her either?
Someone needs to open the database on the server using Full Access Administration. That method will allow you access to change the form.
Subject: RE: They are not visible to her either?
Thanks, I asked our SA about it, and he is looking into it right now, to see if he can see the documents locally from the server…
Subject: Two “invisible” documents - not solved
As a follow-up for anyone doing research, the suggested solution did not work in our case, and the two invisible case documents remain inaccessible. In the view categorized by last name, the category total correctly displays as five, but only three documents are visible.
If anyone has a solution or suggestion, please feel free to email me at Mark.Abe@usdoj.gov.
Thanks.
Subject: RE: Two “invisible” documents - not solved
Mark,
I just did a quick test with a development database of mine on a server. When I go to the document properties, uncheck “All readers and above” for who can read the document, and close the document properties, it does not change read access to the document. If I check the properties again, the “All readers and above” is rechecked.
If I explicitly set a reader, a $Readers field is added to the document with whatever name/role/group I choose.
Your user must have explicitly set a reader when she was messing with the document properties. Maybe you can ask her again what she set it to? Or perhaps a temporary view categorized by $Readers would reveal a clue?
Subject: RE: Two “invisible” documents - not solved
I really can’t remember, if this did work the same in 6.5 already (although I would have probably taken bets it did). But at least in 7 you can definitely see reader field protected documents, if you gain full access administrator rights and then open the database. I do open the database from the Files tab of the Admin client then, but even that might not be necessary.
Just as a reminder (SA should certainly know that), it is NOT enough to be listed as a Full Access Administrator in the server document. You have to explicitly switch on full access admin mode.
In case this should really not work, is there any chance you’ve got an R7 server available?
As Jason pointed out, simply unchecking the “All readers and above” option doesn’t change the document in any way. However, your user could have added a name manually. Could well be a name like, say, Harkpabst Meliantrop, which (possibly) doesn’t exist in any address book. Any user with editor access can do that to any document!
Subject: Full Access Administration
For anyone who might come across this, I have just read the last two responses more than a year later, as I never thought anyone would respond to my last posting which I wrote six months after the original problem.
I have discovered that I can open Administrator and click Adminstration > Full Access Administration. I have not done so yet because I want to be sure I don’t screw anything up. Once I click it and then open the db file, would I then see the two “invisible” docs and be able to change the read access list thru Db Props? (Also - wouldn’t the SA have already tried this??)
I did create a view categorized by $Readers and selected all docs in the db, but all docs fell under the same category of “(Not categorized).” I did think it was possible that the user unchecked the “All readers and above” box and then clicked a name or two, but now that doesn’t seem to be the case.
Mark
Subject: RE: Full Access Administration
Yes, Full Access Administration is what you want. It should make the “missing” documents visible…unless your user encrypted them, too…
Full Access Administration was created, I believe, to be the solution to these sorts of situations. It can also be used to make visible and remove private views from a database for users who are no longer with your company. And, obviously, it will gain you access to a db where everyone is locked out.
There is no “danger” from Full Access Administration, assuming this power is given to someone who has the proper authority within the organization to deserve it.