Announcements
Group prevent downloads settings replaced by group roles
Section titled “Group prevent downloads settings replaced by group roles”The Prevent downloading layer source and Prevent downloading documents settings were respectively replaced by the Downloading layer source and Downloading documents group roles on Oct 6, 2026.
Key action
Section titled “Key action”If not done already, group memberships should be set to ensure that the correct sets of users do and do not have access to download privileges solely using group roles, given that the “Prevent” checkboxes have now been removed.
Context
Section titled “Context”The group roles Downloading layer source and Downloading documents were introduced in a recent update, however the Prevent downloading layer source and Prevent downloading documents settings (which they have now replaced) remained in effect. There is an inversion of logic in how these work:
- Prevent settings work by forbidding every user in a group with them.
- Group roles enable every user in a group with them.
As a result, we could not swap these directly to maintain the same selection of users with downloading privileges.
The grace period until Oct 6, 2026, in which project administrators were able to set their group memberships accordingly with this upcoming change in mind, has now ended. The group roles had no effect during the grace period; they now do with the “Prevent” checkboxes having been removed.
Note for group creation
Section titled “Note for group creation”Ensure that, when creating groups, users who should have access to layer source or document downloads get added to an appropriate group, as this is no longer done automatically as was previously.