Users cannot login to to Confluence
Asked by Gail Power:

Full disclosure - I am 99.9% IT illiterate.

We have server based Jira \& Confluence. The software \& backups have recently been added \& unlocked to a new server.

My personal user account has admin permissions for Jira Core \& Confluence. I also hold the admin account with password.

I am able to log in to Jira \& Confluence with the admin account, but am only able to login to Jira with my personal user account. Other users without admin rights are also only able to login to Jira.

When trying to login to Confluence we get the error message "Sorry, an error occurred trying to log you in. Please try again."

New users are created using Jira.

Does anyone know what has happened and how I can get access back to Confluence for myself and my team? If possible, I will require complete step by step, hold my hand instructions.

Thanks!


Answers:
author: Sagar
body: Hi [@Gail Power](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/4050573) What version of Confluence are you using? If your Confluence version is above 6.5 you can use the below document to login with recovery admin and review your user management settings if there is any connections issue. you will need an server access to update the files on back end.

You can find the Confluence version on bottom of the login page like below

![Capture 2021-05-10 at 9.22.02.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/142740i31EAE4B4B936BD67/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "Capture 2021-05-10 at 9.22.02.png")

<https://confluence.atlassian.com/conf75/restore-passwords-to-recover-admin-user-rights-1004947363.html>

Use recovery mode to restore access

Recovery mode works by creating a virtual user directory with a temporary admin account. You set the password for this admin account when applying the system property. Users can continue to log in and access Confluence while it is in recovery mode.

To recover administrator user rights:

Stop Confluence.

Add the following system property, replacing \<your-password\> with a unique, temporary password.

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

<br />

The way you do this depends on how you run Confluence. See Configuring System Properties for more information on how to apply system properties.  
Start Confluence using your usual method.  
Log in to Confluence with the username recovery_admin and the temporary password you specified in the system property.  
Reset the password for your existing admin account, or create a new account and add it to the appropriate administrator group.  
Confirm that you can successfully log in with your new account.  
Stop Confluence.  
Remove the system property you added earlier.  
Restart Confluence using your usual method (manually or by starting the service).

<br />

I am assuming the your are using Jira Server as a user management for Confluence, check the configuration setting in Confluence and Jira if there are any IP address changes as you have moved your applications to new server the below document will help you identify the setting in Jira

<https://confluence.atlassian.com/adminjiraserver/allowing-connections-to-jira-for-user-management-938847045.html>

To configure an application to connect to Jira as a user server:

Add the application:  
Choose Administration () \> User Management.  
Select Jira User Server.  
Add an application.  
Enter the application name and password that the application will use when accessing your Jira server application.  
Enter the IP address or addresses of the application.  
Save the new application.  
Set up the Jira user directory in the application:  
(For example, see Connecting Confluence to Jira applications for user management or Connecting Jira applications to another server.)  
Log in to the application that is going to connect to your Jira server for user management.  
Go to the application's 'User Directories' administration area.  
Add a new directory of type 'Atlassian Jira'.  
Define the directory order (see Managing multiple directories).  
Create any groups in your Jira server that are required by the other application. For example, see Connecting Confluence to Jira for User Management.

Once your connection is configured correctly on both the applications you should be able to login in Confluence and other users as well.

Let me know in case of any issues or questions.

comments: author: Gail Power
body: Thank you so much! After a bit more digging, the IP address had been changed, but not in the user directory and application.

I didn't need to do admin recovery as I could log into both Confluence \& Jira accounts using the admin account.

Concerned I would lock myself out completely, instead of editing the existing application in Jira, and directory in Confluence, I created new ones from the above instructions and linked documentation.

Myself and two other members of my team have now successfully logged in.


author: Sagar
body: That's cool, Let me know if you require any further help.


Tags: confluence-server

jira

server