How to change password for a user, forgot your password not working
Asked by Chris Groome:

A User wants to login. Tried with their known User/PW and gets a generic "Sorry an error occured". I went to User Management, found the User and clicked on the Username but then could not find the Actions \> Set Password. I can log in as administrator but when trying to login as the user I get the same error dialog. This is version 5.7.1 Confluence. I have read multiple change passwords docs but none seem to match.

I am the systems administrator and the usual application admin has been CovidFurloughed. I have never been in the app beyond an initial dashboard. Your help and understanding is greatly appreciated.


Answers:
author: Chris Groome
body: Above under #3 change password I was able to follow your instructions to that point.

Then on that screen #3 above, below "Back to Users" is a line of possible commands, one of them being "Set Password", BUT that line of commands is missing on my screen. I am logged in as administrator. What is your idea for why that line of commands is missing? (thank you for the easy to follow instructions)

comments: author: repi
body: You must be a member of a group that has ++System++ Administrator rights.

![confluence_admin.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/94035i61FACC74A90C59D0/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "confluence_admin.png")


author: Chris Groome
body: Your response, "You must be a member" Are you referring to Me the systems administrator trying to set the persons password? I looked for myself in the same area that I found the user. I am not listed there. I never used Confluence. The person who did administer users was furloughed along with almost all the users. Are you saying that I will need to somehow add myself as a user and give myself admin rights inorder to then become administrator and set the password for the user?


author: repi
body: This does not work that way, if your confluence account has no system administrator rights so far, this can only be changed by another account with system administrator rights.  
You must have access to a confkuence system administrator account.

This can be found in the global permissions.  
Not in the space permissions.


author: Chris Groome
body: I went to global permissions, confluence-administrators have both Confluence administrator and System Administrator checked. The only login account that I have is the administrator account. I checked under People and I do not have an individual account. So far from what I have been told, logging in as Administrator I should see the line of commands for that user, one of them being set password. But that line of commands is not there. Have I misunderstood what you have told me?


author: repi
body: The user you log in, must be in a group that has been granted rights in the global permissions as system administrator.

Confluence version 5.7.1 is very outdated.  
Is the license still active?  
We are currently at version 7.4.


author: Chris Groome
body: "The user you log in" --ok the user I am trying to change the password to is a standard user and does not have admin rights. I am logging in as administrator and that user is not listed in the People. But administrator user has administrator rights doesn't it? I am not sure I understand your explanation.   
Yes Confluence 5.7.1 is outdated. We have paid and are switching to a new version but in the meantime users need access to docs in the old version. Your help to give them access is greatly appreciated.


author: repi
body: It doesn't matter whether the user is an administrator or something else. He only needs to be in a group that has system administrator rights. That is all and you have to check that.

If that doesn't help, then maybe this:

<https://confluence.atlassian.com/conf71/restore-passwords-to-recover-admin-user-rights-979423718.html>


author: Chris Groome
body: I went back into People and found the user again and the very first entry under Groups is confluence-administrators. This seems to be the requirement you refer to. Then I looked above that to under "Back to Users" looking for the commands from your screen shot and they still are not there. I then looked at different users and found none that had the "Set Password" command on their profile. I then found Local Administrator which I thought was me as I was logged in, and There I found the "Set Password" command as you indicated. If I see it there why do I not see it on other users?  
The link to the restore passwords article is interesting and I hesitate to start hacking the DB. I hope we can find this simpler solution.


author: repi
body: Do your users log on to Confluence using sso or ldap? Then the password change in the AD or LDAP or crowd tool, wherever.

A password change in Confluence is only possible if the users are created in the internal directory.

Do you have any other directories?  
See below.

![users_d.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/94605i397D258364F62FF7/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "users_d.png")


author: Chris Groome
body: I went to the same location as your screen shot and found the same plus an extra. I am not sure what that indicates for me.  
JIRA Server Atlassian Crowd

You cannot edit this directory because you are logged in through it, please log in as a locally authenticating user to edit it.

<br />

Confluence Internal Directory Internal


author: repi
body: 1. In order to be able to edit the crowd directory, you have to log in with a user from the confluence internal directory.  
2. Your users are probably mainly managed via crowd.  
The password must then also be changed there.


author: Chris Groome
body: I read your explanation. I then looked and found that they gave me a personal login to Jira and I can log into that without problem. I have administrator login and I can login using that to confluence. and found my same personal login there. However, when I try to use my same password that does not work. I will try to find another way around this. Any thoughts you have are very welcome.


author: repi
body: You must be a system administrator!

1. Open People

![pw1.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/94015i7D24AF2369837E9B/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "pw1.png")

2. Administer user

![pw2.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/94016i5F369AD651EE5EF8/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "pw2.png")

3. set password

![pw3.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/94017i593B7FF2005F33FD/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "pw3.png")

4. change password

![pw4.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/94018i60AD6580FBB6DD84/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "pw4.png")