Assign a document to specific people Pro

Role and category restrictions answer "which kind of person can see this". Sometimes the answer is a person: this contract belongs to this client, this appraisal belongs to this employee. Set a document’s visibility to Specific people only and pick them.

How to set it

1. Open the document under Documents.
2. In the FileDeck box, set Visibility to Specific people only.
3. Tick the people who should have it.
4. Update.

Only those people — and administrators — can see or download it.

The important part: everyone else sees nothing

This is the one restriction in FileDeck that hides the document completely.

Every other restriction still shows the document as a locked row with a padlock, because that is usually what you want: it tells a visitor there is something there and that signing in will get it. A document assigned to named people works the opposite way. It does not appear in anyone else’s library at all — no row, no title, no padlock.

That difference exists because of what these documents usually are. In a client portal, a locked row would tell every client the names of every other client’s files: "Northwind Q3 Invoice", "Acme Redundancy Letter". The document is removed from the library query itself, not hidden after the fact, so the title never reaches the page.

Things worth knowing

• Assigning nobody hides it from everybody, not from nobody. A document set to "Specific people only" with an empty list is visible to administrators only.
• Administrators always retain access, as with every FileDeck restriction.
• It combines with category restrictions. If the document also sits in a restricted category, both have to pass.
• Switching visibility away clears the list. Set it back to Public or Logged-in and the assignments are dropped rather than kept dormant, so they cannot silently come back if you switch the mode again later.
• The picker lists up to 200 users, plus everyone already assigned to that document however far down the alphabet they are — so re-saving a document can never quietly drop somebody. It is designed for "the three people who should see this contract": if you need to give the same set of documents to a group of people on an ongoing basis, client areas are the better fit, because they work by category and new documents filed there are shared automatically.
• Seeing the list of people requires permission to list users. Editors and administrators get the picker; a contributor editing their own document does not, because it would show them everyone’s name and email.

Which should I use?

You want	Use
One document for one or two named people	Specific people only
An ongoing private space per client, with new files added over time	Client areas
Everything in a section limited to a job role	Role restrictions
A shared secret with people you cannot list as users	Password protection

FAQ

Does the file itself stay protected?

Yes. Assignment is checked on the download route as well as in the library, and the file moves into the protected vault, so a direct file URL returns 403. See file protection and signed URLs.

What happens if I delete an assigned user?

The document stops being visible to them, because there is no longer an account that matches. The assignment row is inert rather than dangerous — it can never match a new user, since WordPress does not reuse user IDs.

Can the assigned person share their link?

The document page and download both re-check who is asking, so a copied link does nothing for anyone else. If you want to hand out a link that works without an account, issue a signed expiring link instead.