Recover admin account
Asked by Patrick Zvyonkzgviw:

Hi all,

I am migrating from cloud to on-premise Confluence and I hit a wall after the backup import - it requires account, which I don't have, so I am trying to follow the guide to access the recovery one.

However, I am not able to complete the whole guide, because it is not clear and kinda confusing.

I am following the steps from [here](https://confluence.atlassian.com/doc/restore-passwords-to-recover-admin-user-rights-158390.html):

1. Stop Confluence.  
   **Done. I am killing the process from cmd with admin rights.**
2. Edit `<installation-directory>/bin/setenv.sh` or `setenv.bat` and add the following system property, replacing `<your-password>` with a unique, temporary password.

       -Datlassian.recovery.password=<your-password>

   See [Configuring System Properties](https://confluence.atlassian.com/doc/configuring-system-properties-168002854.html) for more information on using system properties.  
   **Have few questions here:** **What is the exact syntax and where I should add it exactly? I am adding it on top of the list with "set" commands with the following syntax:
   set CATALINA_OPTS=-Datlassian.recovery.password=qweqwe %CATALINA_OPTS%** **Is it correct?**   

   <br />

3. [Start Confluence](https://confluence.atlassian.com/doc/start-and-stop-confluence-838416264.html) **manually** (don't start Confluence as a service).  
   **OK, But .... I am using Windows 10 and it is installed as a service by default. And according to the drop down menu it says "You can't start or stop Confluence manually using the `start-confluence.bat` and `stop-confluence.bat` file." so how am I suppose to complete this step?**   

4. Log in to Confluence with the username **recovery_admin** and the temporary password you specified in the system property.
5. Reset the password for your existing admin account, or create a new account and add it to the appropriate administrator group.
6. Confirm that you can successfully log in with your new account.
7. Stop Confluence.
8. Edit `<installation-directory>/bin/setenv.sh` or `setenv.bat` and remove the system property.
9. Restart Confluence using your usual method (manually or by starting the service).   

Maybe will have more questions when I manage to continue with the next step, but that's it for now.

Thank you in advance, Confluence team!

BR From Poland!


Answers:
author: Stephen Sifers
body: Hello Patrick and welcome to the Community!

Thank you for providing details as to what you've done at each step. I will help by walking through the steps and answer the questions you posted at each step.

1. Looks like no issues here.
2. You want to add this line as follows within your setenv.bat file (At the bottom of the :
   1. Find the following line
      1. set CATALINA_OPTS=-XX:ReservedCodeCacheSize=256m -XX:+UseCodeCacheFlushing %CATALINA_OPTS%
   2. After this line put in the recovery password line.
      1. Set CATALINA_OPTS=-Datlassian.recovery.password=\<your-password\>
3. While the instructions state you can't do this. You should be able to execute those batch files (while the windows service itself is stopped). I would suggest opening a CMD window and executing those batch files within and leave them open while you reset the admin account. If you run Confluence in the foreground in those windows and close the window, Confluence will be stopped.
4. Once you progress to this step, we'll be awaiting your questions.

Do let us know if you run into any further issues while going through this process.

Regards,  
Stephen Sifers

comments: author: Spencer Ansley
body: Would this work with confluence server 7.18.1?