problems deleting new user
Asked by Project 1445:

New Confluence hosted instance. Created a new user. Want to delete them. No content created.

error message:

\<username\> cannot be deleted because of the following problems

Please resolve the following application references.

Confluence

Error communicating with Confluence: Unauthorized

What gives? I am logged in as the admin.


Answers:
author: Mel Paisley
body: Hey!

For Atlassian OnDemand, you don't need to be a member of the confluence-administrators group (this group is actually reserved for access only by Atlassian for administration purposes).

If you're in the Administrators and site-admins groups then you should be able to delete the user.

If that's not working, you may want to check your confluence global permissions to make sure that the **administrators** group have the **confluence administrator** permission. See [](https://confluence.atlassian.com/display/DOC/Global+Permissions+Overview)<https://confluence.atlassian.com/display/DOC/Global+Permissions+Overview>for more information.

Hope that helps.

Mel

comments: author: Project 1445
body: Ok. This is getting stupid. I've used Confluence for years and yet with this new hosted instance it won't let me delete users. I understand Groups, Space permissions, etc but it won't let me either add my Confluence Administrator to the Administrator group and/or delete the user.

I am in the Administrator and the site-admins group - there is no way for me to change global permisions to put administrator group with confluence administrator permission (hosted instance reserves this for confluence directly).

WTF. This needs to be solved for us as we can't finish test deployment.

David


author: Mel Paisley
body: Hey David,

I've done some further investigation, and it turns out this is due to a bug we're seing intermittently, with Admins and Site-Admins unable to delete users.

You can view details at [](https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/ROTP-2072)<https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/ROTP-2072>, and watch the issue if you would like updates.

The best solution in the interim is to disable the user.

In relation to not being able to give the **administrator** group **confluence administrator** permission, this should be set automatically - you can confirm this via the **confluence global permissions page**.

If no users you have access to have the confluence administrator permission level, feel free to log a support request at [](http://support.atlassian.com)<http://support.atlassian.com>for assistance.

Cheers!

Mel


author: Martin White
body: I have the same problem. I cannot delete users from our hosted solution as I cannot add myself to confluence-administrators.


author: Jason Williams
body: I am having the same problem - I need to delete a user and cannot. I wonder if this is also related to my inability to delete Questions topics.

comments: author: Deividi Luvison
body: Hey Jason,

Please check the reply I gave to David in my previous comment, in there I explain why you are unable to delete an user :).

Thanks and Regards,

David\|Atlassian Support


author: Jason Williams
body: I David,

I was able to revolk access. Actually this user never even logged in according to the history - they just created a password.


author: Deividi Luvison
body: Hmmm interesting, if you are member of the confluence admin group you should be able to do that.

Could you please try going to that user and remove him/er from any Confluence groups him/her is added and try to delete again?

Thanks and Regards,  
David\|Atlassian Support


author: GuentherP
body: Hello,

We are in an evaluation process and facing the same issue. Our user which is trying to delete another user is in the groups as described above (administrator, site-admin). I also tried to delete a test user which was already logged in and another user which never logged in, always the same behaviour:

* Error communicating with Confluence: Unauthorized

The users I want to delete are JUST Confluence users (OnDemand) and they did not create any content yet, so the standard remarks from above do not cover my issue.

Also for our company this is a crutial feature we need to decide positive for this solution. As users of the installed version of confluence we wanted to try the "cloud" approach and still hope this issue can be resolved asap.

I also deleted the test users from any group relation - one of my first tries ;-)

Thanks you for your support.


author: Deividi Luvison
body: If the above aproaches failed my suggestion is is that you raise a case on [](http://support.atlassian.com)<http://support.atlassian.com>so our OnDemand support team can vaidate if we are dealing with somekind of bug.

Thanks and Regards,  
David\|Atlassian Support


author: William Zanchet [Atlassian]
body: Hello there,  

Can you please make sure that your user belongs to the confluence-administrators group? This it the group that has permission to do it.  

Cheers,  
W.

comments: author: Project 1445
body: The Hosted Confluence admin is a member of:

administrators

balsamiq-mockups-editors

developers

site-admins

users

but not confluence-administrators. The only user there is sysadmin which we have no access to. We cannot add the hosted admin to the confluence-administrators group. This isn't first time w/us and Atlassian. We've never had to have the instance admin be a member of the confluence admin group. They've been able to add/delete users before...

So I don't think that's it.


author: Deividi Luvison
body: Hey David,

Actually you can't delete a user in OnDemand if that user took thw following actions:

* Reported or been assigned to any issues (in JIRA)
* Commented on any issues (in JIRA)
* Added or edited any content on the site (in Confluence). Such content includes pages and blog posts, and edits and comments on existing pages.
* Created labels or comments about build results (in Bamboo).

If this new user made any of the above you will be unable to delete him/her, the only thing you can do is deactivate the user so it will no longer count against your license as per [this](https://confluence.atlassian.com/display/AOD/Deleting+or+Deactivating+Users) page.

Please let us know if the above information helps you.  
Thanks and Regards,  
David\|Atlassian Support


Tags: cloud

confluence-cloud