How to make a XenForo forum private (no guest access)

Sim · Jun 5, 2020

Sim submitted a new resource:

How to make a XenForo forum private (no guest access) - Detailed instructions on how to make a site private with no guest access to content

I run several private websites where you must be a registered and approved member to view the forum content and post. There are several approaches for setting up a site for private use - the purpose of this tutorial is to explain the differences and describe my preferred approach.

The example I will use for this is the REBAA member forums I run for the Real Estate Buyers Agents Association of Australia - a not-for-profit industry association. The forums are for current members to share and...

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Sim · Jan 12, 2022

Note - I have updated some of the instructions in this tutorial to also hide menu items and widgets from users without a valid user_state to ensure that users who have registered but aren't yet approved can't see these items.

The Private Site addon has also been updated to hide the What's New and New Posts buttons from users without a valid user_state.

cdub · Jan 19, 2023

Do you know how to make it so the new posts widget shows the new threads in the forums for the guests but not the content if they click on them?

Sim · Aug 24, 2024

cdub said:
Do you know how to make it so the new posts widget shows the new threads in the forums for the guests but not the content if they click on them?

I know this is a rather late reply - but you should be able to do this with the following settings for the Unregistered / Unconfirmed user group:

View threads by others: Yes
View thread content: No or Never

I haven't tested this, but it should work.

cdub · Aug 24, 2024

Sim said:
I know this is a rather late reply - but you should be able to do this with the following settings for the Unregistered / Unconfirmed user group:

View threads by others: Yes

View thread content: No or Never

I haven't tested this, but it should work.

I think I tried this and it didn't work. I ended up getting a custom widget made for it.

Sim · Aug 24, 2024

I'm glad I took the time to write this tutorial - I'm just setting up another private site and this saved me a heap of time because I had forgotten which settings needed to be changed

Sim · Aug 24, 2024

cdub said:
I think I tried this and it didn't work. I ended up getting a custom widget made for it.

Ahh - yeah, this would work if they can see the forums themselves, but the New Posts widget probably hides threads you can't actually read, which would make sense.

Empty · Oct 20, 2025

Hi there, used this tutorial and it worked great for us until it was reported that the Trophies page is apparently completely public. Which might be fine for some communities but since it has a list of users, it's not ok for ours.

I cannot find any way to make Trophies hidden to the public except for setting the View Site option to No.

You may want to check to see if your Trophies page is public.

Sim · Oct 21, 2025

Empty said:
Hi there, used this tutorial and it worked great for us until it was reported that the Trophies page is apparently completely public

Which trophies page are you referring to? Did you want to send me a link to your site so I can take a look?

Empty · Oct 21, 2025

Sim said:
Which trophies page are you referring to? Did you want to send me a link to your site so I can take a look?

So sorry for the confusion and misplaced concern, apparently the trophies page is a feature from this addon:

[XFA] Trophies Enhancement (categories, icons, leadeboard, announcement,...) - XF2

Oct 21, 2018

Take your trophies to the next level !

Am reaching out to XFA to let them know my privacy concern, thank you for being willing to help me figure this out.

How to make a XenForo forum private (no guest access)

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[XFA] Trophies Enhancement (categories, icons, leadeboard, announcement,...) - XF2

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