People and permissions: who can do what

When you share a library with other people, not all of them have to be able to do everything. Each person has a role in each library: the part they play, which decides what they can do. This page explains the three roles, how to ask for a change you cannot make yourself, and how the administrator accepts it.

Roles belong to each library: someone can administer “Home” and be a reader in “Book club”.

The three roles

• Administrator: can do everything, including deciding who comes in, what role each person has, and what is done with the requests (the changes other people ask for).
• Editor: creates and changes things, and deletes only what that same person added.
• Reader: sees the library and asks for the changes they want.

At home it is normal to have one or two administrators, the adults as editors and the children as readers. Nobody has to overthink it: if you do not know what to pick for someone, pick editor.

Where to see it

Open the menu and go to “People and permissions”. You will see the people in the library, the role of each one and which devices they come in from. At the top, the app tells you what your role is in that library.

If you are an administrator, when you open a person you can change their role, change whether they can share the library (that is, send it to other devices), and see their devices. If you are not an administrator, you see the list, but whoever administers changes the permissions, and the app tells you who that is.

A device that nobody has assigned to a person appears in “Devices without a person”, and the app gives it reader permissions. To fix it, whoever administers taps “Assign” and picks the person it belongs to.

Ask instead of doing

A reader does not change the library: they ask for the change. An editor also has to ask for one thing: deleting something that another person added.

1. When you try to add or delete, the app tells you that you need to ask (“Ask to add”, “Ask to delete”). For example: “You are a reader in Home: it is added when an administrator accepts it.”
2. If you want, write a note for whoever decides (“For example: a present from grandma”), and tap “Send request”.
3. You can follow it in “My requests”: pending, accepted, rejected or withdrawn. While it is pending you can tap “Withdraw”.

When the administrator accepts it, the change is made. If you already had permission to make it (for example, you were moved up from reader to editor), the app tells you: “Done: you may now do this without asking.”

Accept or reject (if you administer)

When someone asks for something, a bell icon with a number appears: the pending requests. Go to “Requests” in the menu.

• You see the list, with “Pending” and “Resolved”. When you choose one, the app shows you what would change if you accept.
• “Accept” makes the change. “Reject” does nothing, and the person who asked sees that it was rejected.
• “Edit and accept” lets you correct the change before accepting it.
• If two people administer, the first one to decide counts: the other one sees that someone has already resolved it, and has nothing to do.
• Sometimes a request can no longer be applied, because something it used no longer exists (for example, the book was deleted in the meantime). The app says so, and you can reject it.

When only one person administers

If you are the only person who administers a library and you lose your only device, nobody could change the permissions or answer the requests. That is why the app warns you (“You are the only administrator of Home”) and suggests making another person an administrator (“Name someone else”). It is best to do it soon. For the same reason, the app does not let you remove the last person who administers, or remove their only device.

Leaving the library yourself

Anyone, with any role, can leave the library (“Library settings”, “Leave the library”): they withdraw their own access. It disappears from all their devices and from their account, but their name, books and marks stay in the library. Coming back is only decided by whoever administers: they have to give them access again and link another device of theirs.

Nobody who does not administer can withdraw another person’s access, nor give it back to themself after leaving. The only person who administers cannot leave: they have to name another administrator first, or delete the library. More in Several libraries.

What it cannot do

• If someone takes a photo of the screen or copies what they see, the app cannot stop them. The role decides what can be changed, not what can be seen.

To remove someone from a library, see Remove a person or a device.