Inviting someone to view a private post

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  pseudonymmm · Member · Apr 28, 2022 at 5:39 am

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  Hi!
  I was trying to publish a post privately, but my friend tells me he can’t access it. I tried setting a password as well as invite him as an editor, but so far, it’s not working. What does he need to do? I can’t tell him, unfortunately! Or is there anything I need to do differently?
  Thanks for your help!

  WP.com: Yes
  Correct account: Yes

  The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)

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  fstat · Staff · Apr 28, 2022 at 12:32 pm

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  Hi there,

  Please let me know your post’s name and your friend’s username so I can have a look and further help you.

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  pseudonymmm · Member · Apr 28, 2022 at 1:20 pm

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  Hi,

  its the last post I published, the title so far is “E.K.”, this is the link:

  https://wordpress.com/post/friederikekronauer.wordpress.com/7692

  I tried inviting my friend to become an editor it by entering his email address: (email visible only to moderators and staff)
  To be honest, I don’t think he’s on WordPress (yet)… Does he have to be?
  What about with a password? I tried that first, but he couldn’t figure out what he had to do. And I don’t know what it looks like on his end, so I don’t know how to help!

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  staff-doublebassd · Staff · Apr 28, 2022 at 3:24 pm

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  Hi there,

  To be honest, I don’t think he’s on WordPress (yet)… Does he have to be?

  Yes, in order to be a viewer of a private site, you must have a WordPress.com account.

  https://wordpress.com/support/user-roles/#viewer

  It appears that your friend has yet to accept the invite – the invite is still pending as you can see here:

  https://wordpress.com/people/invites/friederikekronauer.wordpress.com

  I would reach out to them and confirm that they received the invitation email. If they do not see it, you can resend it from the link above.

  For steps to invite users as viewers of the private site, please check out our support page:

  https://wordpress.com/support/user-roles/#adding-and-removing-viewers-on-a-private-site

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  pseudonymmm · Member · Apr 28, 2022 at 3:43 pm

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  Thanks, I’ll ask him… ;)

  But what about with a password? I thought it would be possible to protect a post and still show it to friends or family who don’t have an account?
  Is there any way at all?

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  staff-doublebassd · Staff · Apr 28, 2022 at 4:00 pm

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  Hi there,

  So singular posts work a bit differently. You have the option to make a singular post private (where a user has to be an admin or editor to view), or you can password protect that post, and anyone with the password can access the post, with or without a WordPress.com account.

  If you prefer to go this route, please visit our support page that provides step by steps instructions:

  https://wordpress.com/support/post-and-page-visibility/#changing-visibility

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  pseudonymmm · Member · Apr 28, 2022 at 4:02 pm

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  Thanks again!
  I already tried, and I think I did it right, but what does HE have to do? I couldn’t find any info on that…

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  helper-heroponriki · Member · Apr 28, 2022 at 7:11 pm

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  I think we need to get us all on the same page here. Can you clarify how you want this to work when it’s all said and done?

  Do you want to have password-protected posts that people can view if they have the password and without being a registered user on the account? Posts that aren’t password-protected would be open to anyone to read if they find your site.

  OR

  Do you want to have a private website where only people you added as a registered user can view your posts, regardless of whether or not the posts are password protected?

  Depending on which end result you want, we’ll more clearly advise how to get you to that point.

  Thanks!

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  pseudonymmm · Member · Apr 29, 2022 at 6:01 am

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  The first option! :)

  I only tried experimenting with the other when my friend told me it didn’t work…

  Does that help?

  Thanks so much!

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  fstat · Staff · Apr 29, 2022 at 6:57 am

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  So, to configure that follow the instructions below to create a password-protected post. Once you have done that, share the password with your friend, and then they’ll be able to view your post.

  https://wordpress.com/support/post-and-page-visibility/#changing-visibility

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  pseudonymmm · Member · Apr 29, 2022 at 11:00 am

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  I’m sorry, I already tried that before! Setting the password was no problem, but is there anything about how to share? Because that was the problem: my friend couldn’t figure out where to enter the password or what to do… And I can’t help him, since I can’t see what it looks like on his end.

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  staff-ozmodiar · Staff · Apr 29, 2022 at 2:04 pm

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  I suspect you were just not sharing the right URL. The one you listed earlier is an internal “backend” URL. This is what a public URL looks like.

  https://friederikekronauer.wordpress.com/2022/04/25/7692/

  Try sharing that with your friend.

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  pseudonymmm · Member · Apr 29, 2022 at 6:34 pm

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  Thanks a lot! That helped! :)

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  helper-heroponriki · Member · Apr 29, 2022 at 7:05 pm

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  Great – glad to hear that worked!

  In the future, just make sure you share the URL from the front end of your site for any password-protected posts and everything should work just fine.

  If you’re ever not sure how to find that front end URL, in the post editor after you publish the post, if you expand the “Permalinks” section of the right hand column, under “view post” will be a the front end URL for the post

  

  Happy writing!

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  pseudonymmm · Member · Apr 29, 2022 at 8:09 pm

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  Thanks!!! That really was my next question! ;)

  I really appreciate your help and support!!!