What to do when you see access denial on a Case

If you opened a Case link or a Case-related page and saw an access-denied screen, this article walks you through why it happens, how to recover, and how to ask the right person for the right fix. Access denial is a deliberate guardrail — it usually means your account exists but the platform decided you should not see this particular resource.

Why NearbySpy denies access

Every Case-data request goes through five checks in order: an active sign-in session, your platform role, your account level, your Case role, and the Operation visibility setting. If any one of those checks fails, the page returns an access-denied response instead of leaking the existence and contents of a record you should not see. The check is enforced at the database layer, so refreshing or trying a different URL will not change the outcome.

The most common reasons

• You are signed in to the wrong account. Many users have both a personal and an organization account. Sign out and back in with the address that received the invite.
• Your invite has not been accepted. Check your email for a Case invitation and use the accept link. Detailed in Accepting a Case invitation.
• You were removed from the Case. An Owner or Admin may have changed membership. Contact them through whatever channel you originally used to coordinate.
• The Operation is set to "no Client visibility." The Case is open to you, but a specific Operation has been hidden. See Controlling what Clients see on Operations.
• Your role is too low. Viewers cannot edit; Clients cannot see investigator-only tabs. Compare your role against the matrix in Case roles: Owner, Admin, Investigator, Viewer, Client.

Step-by-step recovery

1. Confirm you are signed in. Open your dashboard and check the email shown in the top corner.
2. If wrong, sign out and sign in with the correct account.
3. Reopen the original link from your email rather than a copy you saved earlier.
4. If still denied, contact the Investigator or Case Owner who invited you and ask them to confirm your membership and role.
5. If you are an Owner or Admin and you still see denial on your own Case, contact NearbySpy support — see Contact form reasons and what to include.

What support can and cannot do

Support can verify that an invitation was sent, that your account exists, and that the Case is healthy. Support cannot read the contents of your Case or grant themselves membership. Permission changes always go through the Case Owner or Admin so the audit trail reflects the correct decision-maker.

Related reading

• Case Settings: governance and permissions
• Privacy basics for Cases and Evidence
• Security practices and legal pages