I can't find or open something in the admin

A menu described in these guides is missing for you, or you get a permission error opening something.

These guides describe a menu you cannot see, or you click something and get told you do not have permission. There are three usual explanations, and none of them is a fault.

The feature is still being rolled out

Some parts of BrightSite are switched on for organizations gradually rather than released to everyone at once. If a whole menu is absent, this is the most likely reason.

The ones most often missing:

  • Docs: publishing your own documentation site.
  • Spotlight: watching recordings of visitor sessions.
  • Heatmaps: click and scroll maps.
  • Google Reviews: showing your reviews on your site.

These are not tied to your plan. Contact support and ask to have one switched on.

Your role does not include it

BrightSite hides what you cannot use rather than showing you options that fail. If a colleague can see something you cannot, compare roles before assuming anything is broken.

Two details that catch people out:

  • Publishing is separate from editing. A role can let you change a page but not put it live. If the edit works and publishing is refused, that is your role, working as intended.
  • Restoring an old version publishes it. So restoring needs publish permission, not just edit permission.

Whoever administers your organization can check and change your role. See Roles and permissions.

You are in the wrong organization

If you belong to more than one organization, everything you see belongs to whichever one is currently selected. A page you cannot find may simply be in the other one.

The organization switcher sits to the left of the menus. Check which name is showing before hunting further.

This also explains content that appears to have vanished: it is usually sitting safely in another organization, or on a staging copy rather than the live site.

Your subscription needs attention

If a payment has failed or a subscription has lapsed, access is limited until it is sorted out. You will be told this explicitly rather than left guessing, and the fix is in Plans and billing.

Working out which one it is

In order, this resolves it fastest:

  1. Check the organization switcher. Are you where you think you are?
  2. Ask a colleague with a fuller role whether they can see it. If they can, it is your permissions. If they cannot, it is not switched on for your organization.
  3. Contact support with the name of the feature and what you expected to find.

Last updated September 8, 2026