Managing groups

What groups are for

Groups control what Members can see. They have no effect on Owners, Admins, or Org Editors - those roles already have full access to everything and groups cannot restrict them.

A Member starts with access to nothing. You use groups to grant them access to specific maps and data. This means you can invite someone as a Member, put them in a group that covers only two maps, and they will only ever see those two maps - nothing else in the organization.

Use groups when you want to:

• Invite a contractor or external collaborator with access to only the maps they need.
• Give a field team read-only access to a specific set of maps without exposing the rest of your data.
• Separate different teams so each sees only what is relevant to them.

Do not expect groups to restrict Owners, Admins, or Org Editors. If you need to limit what someone sees, invite them as a Member and use groups to grant access. If they already have a higher role, groups will not reduce their access - you would need to change their role first.

How groups work

Each group has two things:

• A permission level - how much its members may do with the resources on the list (see below).
• An access list - the specific maps, feature layers, and data sources the group can reach.

A Member in a group can see and interact with every resource on that group's access list, at the permission level the group has. If a Member is in multiple groups, they get the highest permission level across those groups for any given resource.

Permission levels

Level	Sees	Can add features	Can edit and delete	Notes and photos
Read	everything	no	nothing	no
Collect	only the features they added	yes	only the features they added	on their own features only
Contribute	everything	yes	only the features they added	on any feature
Edit	everything	yes	everything, including layer fields	on any feature

Collect suits a field crew where each person works their own sites: a collector's map, table, filter lists, and counts show only what they recorded. Contribute suits a crew that shares one picture of the work but should not change each other's records: they see every feature, can note or photograph any of them, and edit only their own. Changing a group's permission level applies to its members right away.

One level per group. The level applies to everything on the group's access list. To give someone Read on one feature layer and Contribute on another, make two groups, one per level, and add the person to both: for each layer they get the highest level among the groups that cover it.

Some things need the Edit level regardless of who added the feature: changing a layer's fields, importing a CSV, exporting, bulk-editing a selection that includes someone else's features, and creating public share links.

Creating a group

1. In the Groups panel, click New group.
2. Enter a name (e.g. "Field Team" or "Reviewers").
3. Choose a permission level (see Permission levels above).
4. Click Create group.

Adding members to a group

1. Click Manage on a group to open it.
2. Go to the Members tab.
3. Members already in the group appear under Current members. Click Remove to take someone out.
4. Members eligible to be added appear under Add members. Click Add next to a name.

Owners, Admins, and Org Editors do not appear in the add list because they already have full access.

Inviting directly into a group

You can generate an invite link that adds someone to the organization and into a specific group in one step.

1. Open a group and go to the Members tab.
2. Click Generate link under Invite to this group.
3. Copy the link and send it. When the recipient joins, they become a Member and are immediately added to the group.

Controlling map access

1. Open a group and go to the Maps tab.
2. Turn the Access switch on or off for each map.

Changes take effect immediately.

Controlling data access

1. Open a group and go to the Data tab.
2. Feature layers and data sources are listed in two tables. Turn the Access switch on or off for each.

A group must have access to a data source for its members to see any map layer that uses it.

Renaming a group

1. Open the group.
2. Click the pencil next to its name at the top of the dialog.
3. Type the new name and press Enter, or click the check mark.

Changing a group's permission level

1. Open a group and go to the Permissions tab.
2. Pick a level. It applies to all members immediately.

Deleting a group

1. Open the group.
2. Click the trash icon next to its name at the top of the dialog and confirm.

Members who were only in that group will have no access to any resources until they are added to another group.