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EMERGENCY: Lost access to all private pages in team workspace (years of knowledge), workspace possibly deleted by owner!

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Hello,

I am a dedicated Notion user and I have a serious emergency: I have been removed from a Notion workspace (paid plan) by the workspace owner, and thus have lost access to all my personal pages under the Private section of the workspace, which contains ALL my personal knowledge and information that I've built up over at least a decade. I am unsure whether the owner has only revoked access or deleted the entire workspace. I have contacted owner to ask but it is currently the middle of the night where he lives, so no response yet. I have also contacted Notion support (team at makenotion com) but heard they take a while to respond so I'm asking here hoping for immediate assistance.

My understanding was that this Private section is independent of whatever workspace I'm signed into at the moment, i.e. tied to my account (email) and not any workspace. I figured it was like this since it's a separate private section and not shared with anyone in the workspace.

Please please can somebody provide some assistance? Is all my personal stuff just poof gone? What can I do? I am no exaggeration finished if so because this private section contained my entire digital life! I am absolutely freaking out at the moment and just hope someone, anyone can help me. Thank you in advance.

by JimRaynor (170 points)

2 Answers

0vote

polle Points79030

No one can help you but the owner or Notion support, you will have to wait for them to answer.

You should never have private files in other users accounts, you should use your own Notion account for that.

by polle (79.0k points)

0vote

JimRaynor commented

Well it's all in my account, not another person's. I was removed from the workspace by the owner, hence losing access to all my private stuff. My mistake was thinking a user's private section in Notion is tied to their account (email) and not the workspace they're currently in.

by JimRaynor (170 points)

0vote

polle commented

The workspace owner is the owner, that is how he removed you.

You should have your private content in your own Notion workspace, not someone else's and shared that can remove you and see all your private files.

by polle (79.0k points)

1vote

JimRaynor commented

I checked, and I just remembered that I actually was the one who created the workspace back then. That makes me the workspace owner. What then happened is that I made the other person a workspace owner as well. It's just us two in the the workspace, and we're both owners. Thus he was able to remove me.

I do not believe the other person ever had access to my private content in this workspace, at least according to the view analytics where it says who has access and can view those pages. Also, my account is tied to a personal email, not a company email or anything, so it's not like the other person (or anyone else) can view the private content. At least that's my understanding based on my research, feel free to correct me if you know otherwise.

But in any case, I have removed the other person from this workspace now (with their consent, they do not need it anymore), and now I am the only person in the workspace and thus the only owner. Thus I should be fine now going forward I'm thinking...

by JimRaynor (170 points)

0vote

polle commented

Never make another owner where you have your private files, they will have access too.

Create another workspace, add people there and share there, not in your own personal one.

Please select the answer to mark the question as solved.

by polle (79.0k points)

0vote

JimRaynor commented

I'm sorry, but why do you keep claiming workspace owners have access to other people's private pages? I checked the Notion documentation and elsewhere, and I could not find any resource confirming this. Instead it says that private pages are always private and no one else (not even workspace owner) can see them, unless you explicitly share them. Only exception is if you join the workspace via a company email that is owned by the workspace owner (not my case, I signed up with private email).

by JimRaynor (170 points)

0vote

polle commented

If you make someone else an owner, it is simple as that, you are giving them complete access.

As I said, do not do that, add them as guests, not owners.

If you need different permissions, pay for an account and assign the permissions as needed.

And just to be clear, I do not say anything, it is how Notion works and this article may help.

Please select the answer to mark the question as solved.

by polle (79.0k points)

0vote

JimRaynor commented

Check the following Notion documentation, which counter your claim that workspace owners have access to everything:

Thus generally speaking (including in my case), workspace owners do NOT have access to other workspace members' private pages, according to the official Notion documentation.

by JimRaynor (170 points)

0vote

JimRaynor Points170

I finally got in touch with the owner. Turns out I was simply removed from the workspace instead of the whole workspace being deleted. In any case, I have regained access to the workspace. My personal data was unaffected by this incident. Therefore, this case has been solved.

by JimRaynor (170 points)

0vote

polle commented

Glad you solved, please select the answer to mark the question as solved.

by polle (79.0k points)

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