How to delete an imported space when I have no permission as admin?
Asked by Markus Raab:

Hey there ...

I just wanted to clean up and delete a test space on my free Atlassian Confluence Cloud account.

Unfortunately, it seems I, the only user and administrator, am not allowed to do this. I think I imported the space some time ago when I experimented with migration, export, import.

If I remember right I imported it from a local Confluence instance.

Is there any easy way to delete this space?

![Screenshot 2020-05-09 at 10.58.11.jpg](/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/94129iC4EDF827AC10E94D/image-dimensions/454x338?v=v2 "Screenshot 2020-05-09 at 10.58.11.jpg")


Answers:
author: Phill Fox
body: From the screen shot I can see that you do not have the Permissions tab which implies that you are logged in as someone with the Space Admin permission.

One clue to who might have the Space Admin permission is the reference to the "Former User" under the administrators which may indicate that this "Former User" created the space and under the permissions did not set the Space Admin permission for anyone else. (I am making the huge assumption here that your user is not called Confluence Analytics (System)!)  

To fix this you need to go through the site administrator options

![Annotation 2020-05-09 133516.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/94139iF4E87E079D70A759/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "Annotation 2020-05-09 133516.png")

![Annotation 2020-05-09 133602.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/94140i77427D0FF7F93BF3/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "Annotation 2020-05-09 133602.png")

The first thing to check is that no changes have been made to the Default Space permissions as these will have impacted your ability to Admin Spaces. Check that the group you belong to administrators/site-admins has the Admin Space permission. If this is ok then you need to find the individual space and "Manage Permissions" for that space. ![Annotation 2020-05-09 133934.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/94141i887F26986CD726A1/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "Annotation 2020-05-09 133934.png")

This should now take you in to the Space Settings but showing you who has permissions for that space. You may find that the default values have been removed which would be why even though you are in one of the administrator groups you do not have permission on the space. I would add these back in if missing. Alternatively you can just add yourself as an individual user with Space Admin permission to allow you to delete.   
Remember Delete is a destructive process and you need to be certain that you really want to delete (and it is always worth taking a Space Export as a backup before deleting).

comments: author: Markus Raab
body: Hi Phil,

thanks for your suggestion - I checked and the default space permissions are totally fine. However, I am simply not able to "**Manage Permissions** " of that space. It is not available even though I am in the group **administrator** , **confluence-administrator** , **site-admins**.

In all other spaces, I am able to change the permission. I only have issues with this one space.

![Space_Permissions_-_Confluence.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/94169i61EA18C90B25FAB7/image-dimensions/788x374?v=v2 "Space_Permissions_-_Confluence.png")


author: Phill Fox
body: Hi [@Markus Raab](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/256837)

As you are effectively locked out now of the space, you could try resurrecting the "former user" listed in the administrator in your first list or raising a support ticket with Atlassian to ask them to add you to the administrators for the space.   
I would probably go for the second option first.

Phill


author: Markus Raab
body: Do you have any idea [@Phill Fox](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/781516) how to best reach out to Atlassian? I am currently on the free plan which does not come with Atlassian Customer Support.

However, the community cannot solve my small issue here. I need someone from Atlassian to solve that problem.


author: Phill Fox
body: [@Markus Raab](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/256837)

As what you have is not easily resolvable by the Community you could report it as a bug - The fact you have an orphaned space - at <https://jira.atlassian.com/projects/CONFCLOUD/issues>.   

Alternatively a nice helpful soul from Atlassian may see you post and pick this up and help you.

Phill


Tags: cloud