Create, edit, or remove a user
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See centralized user management.
Before you begin
To manage users in Jira apps, you must have the Jira Administrator or System Jira Administrator global permission. For details, see Permissions overview.
To access user management settings in Jira, select Administration 
(in the upper-right corner of the screen) > User management.
Creating users
There are several ways to create a user in Jira. Read on to learn which method is right for your team.
If you're adding users to a Jira Service Management project, check out Setting up users.
Create users manually in Jira
If you have a small team, you can create users directly in Jira.
Consider external user management (LDAP or Active Directory) if you have a lot of hands on deck. Maintaining permissions for individual user ID's can be messy if you have too many users, so there are other options for your large staff. See Create users automatically for more details.
- In the upper-right corner of the screen, select Administration> User Management.
In the User browser that opens, select Create User button (located in the upper-right corner of the screen).
Enter the Username, Password, Full Name, and Email address.
Optionally, select the Send Notification Email checkbox to send the user an email containing:
their username
a 24-hour valid link from which they can set a password
Make sure to select the Send Notification Email checkbox if you don’t set a password for a new user. Otherwise, the user won’t be able to authenticate and will have to reset the password by selecting the forgot your password link on the login page.
If you have more than one Jira application installed, you will need to select the Jira application you want to give the user access to.
Select Create another if you want to create more users.
Select Create user to save your changes.
After the user is created, you'll be brought to the User browser where you can view the user information and perform additional functions such as edit details, edit groups or properties, and delete the user.
Invite users to Jira via email
You can invite users to Jira through email. When they accept the invitation, they will be given access to the applications set as default.
Jira's SMTP mail server must be configured to send notifications before you can invite users via email.
- In the upper-right corner of the screen, select Administration> User Management.
- In the User browser that opens, select Invite Users button (located in the upper-right corner of the screen).
Enter the email addresses of the users that you want to invite. To add multiple users, separate their email addresses with a comma.
Note: You cannot invite users by sending an invitation to a distribution list.Select the Send button to send the invitations. Consider the following:
Each invitation can only be used to create a user under the email address that it was sent to, and can only be used once.
Each invitation will expire seven days after the day it was sent.
Your user license count will not be affected until users accept the invitation and their accounts are created.
Create users automatically
Use a mail handler, connect to an internal directory, or enable public signup
There are a few other ways to create a user in Jira. The following methods are more specialized and can fill a specific need of your team.
Select default applications for new users
If you have more than one Jira application, it's possible to select which applications new users will automatically be assigned to. If you manually create a user, the applications you select as defaults will be preselected. However, it's possible to change this while creating the user. If you allow users to sign up via email, via public signup, or an email handler, they will be given access to the applications you select.
- In the upper-right corner of the screen, select Administration> User Management.
On the left-side navigation panel, select Application access.
Select Set defaults for new users.
Choose one or more applications that you want to set as default and select Set defaults.
You've now set the default applications to be used for new user creation. These users will be assigned to the default groups of the applications you have selected.
Editing users
Modifying user information, such as name, email, address, and password, is easy with the Jira internal directory. If you are using an external authentication method such as LDAP or Active Directory, you'll have to make changes in that system rather than in Jira. See Create users automatically for more information.
Edit a username, full name, or email address
If you're using the Jira internal directory to manage users, you can modify these three attributes together, in a few simple clicks.
When updating a username, note that Jira cannot update external usernames — for example, users that are coming from an LDAP server or Crowd instance. However, Jira can update Jira users stored in an "Internal Directory with LDAP Authentication."
- In the upper-right corner of the screen, select Administration> User Management.
Find the user in the user list by using the filter form at the top of the page.
Click Edit in the Actions column.
Make changes to the username, full name, or email address and click Update to finish.
Change a password
Jira admins can change user passwords directly in Jira when using the internal directory. A password cannot be changed if users are managed from an LDAP server or Crowd instance.
- In the upper-right corner of the screen, select Administration> User Management.
- Find the user in the user list using the filter form at the top of the page.
- Click on the username.
- Choose Actions > Set Password.
- Enter and confirm the new password, and click the Update button to finish.
Add a property to a user
A Property is an extra piece of information about a user that you can store in Jira. A Property consists of a Key of your choice, like "phone number" or "location", plus a corresponding Value (eg. "987 654 3210", "level three"). User Properties do not have an effect in the project apart from adding additional information about the user. Apps, however, can frequently use this data.
- In the upper-right corner of the screen, select Administration> User Management.
- Find the user in the user list using the filter form at the top of the page.
Select the Full name of a user you want to edit.
Select Actions > Edit Properties. The Edit User Properties screen will be displayed.
Enter the new Key and its Value, then select the Add button to finish.
Deactivating users
Have a user that no longer needs access to Jira? Rather than deleting a user, we recommend that you deactivate their account. Deactivating a user's account will prevent it from being used, but it will preserve that user's history of activity. You can also anonymize a user, which can be useful if somebody requests to have their personal data erased.
Deactivate a user
Jira administrators can deactivate a Jira user, which disables that user's access to Jira. This avoids the need for a Jira admin to delete the user's account from the system.
This feature is useful when a Jira user leaves the organization or changes departments because their Jira activity history is preserved in the system. If a user with a deactivated Jira account needs access again at some point in the future, their Jira user account can be easily reactivated.
- In the upper-right corner of the screen, select Administration> User Management.
In the user list, find the user that you want to deactivate
In the Actions menu select Edit Details.
Deselect the Active checkbox.
Select Update to confirm the change.
The user will now appear in the user list with a strikethrough their username and full name, and the text (inactive).
Note
- To deactivate a project or component lead, assign other users as the relevant project or component leads first. These users cannot be deleted without first replacing their roles. An error message will appear asking you to assign another user first.
If your Jira instance is configured to use an external Atlassian Crowd user directory, the user will be deactivated in Jira if they are deactivated in Crowd.
Jira does not deactivate users who are configured and deactivated/disabled in an external Microsoft Active Directory or LDAP-based user directory, with the exception of Jira users configured with "delegated LDAP authentication".
- You can activate a deactivated users by following the same steps from the preceding instruction.
When you deactivate a user, they:
- Will no longer be able to sign in to Jira.
- Will not count towards your Jira user license limit.
- Can't be assigned issues or added as a watcher to issues whenever issues are created or edited. However:
- A user who was assigned, was watching, or had reported any issues in Jira before their account is deactivated, will still appear as the respective assignee, watcher, or reporter of those issues. This situation remains until another user is specified as the assignee or reporter, the deactivated user is removed as a watcher, or the account is reactivated.
- A user who voted on any issues in Jira before their account is deactivated will continue to appear as a voter on these issues.
- Will continue to appear on the Jira user interface with "(Inactive)" displayed after their name.
- Can still be used to filter issues in a Jira search query.
Will still be a member of the groups they belong to.
- Will not receive any email notifications from Jira, even if they continue to remain the assignee, reporter, or watcher of issues.
Deleting users
We recommend deactivating a user instead of deleting one. Check the previous section for more information.
If you do want to delete a user, you need to keep a few things in mind:
You can't delete a user from within Jira if you're using External User Management. However, you can deactivate the user.
You cannot delete a user from Jira if they’ve reported any issue, commented on any issue, or been assigned to any issue.
The filters and dashboards of a user will be deleted when the user is deleted, even if the filters or dashboards are shared with other users.
All issues that have been reported by or assigned to the user you are attempting to delete, are respectively hyperlinked to a list of the individual issues in the Issue Navigator.
- In the upper-right corner of the screen, select Administration> User Management.
- In the user list, find the user that you want to delete. You can also use the filter form at the top of the page.
In the Actions … column select Delete user. Jira will check if the selected user has reported any issue, commented on any issue, been assigned to any issue, etc. The relation between the user and other parts of the system may prevent the deletion of the user.
Take any actions required to disassociate the user with Jira. The error message will give you exact instructions. They may include:
Reassigning any issues currently assigned to the user.
Bulk editing the issues created by the user and changing the Reporter to another active user. If the user you’re deleting created any issues that are closed now and that you don’t want to reopen, you’ll need to allow editing of closed issues.
Changing the owner of shared dashboards owned by the user you’re deleting. For more details, see Managing dashboards.
- Changing the project lead for any projects where the user is a lead.
- If there are no issues assigned to, commented by, or reported by the user, the confirmation screen will display a Delete button. Select the button to delete the user.
Anonymyzing users
Anonymizing a user will hide or delete any data that can identify them as a real person. Any occurrences of their personal data, like username or full name, will be changed into an unrecognizable alias.
You can also anonymize a user when they request to erase their personal data from the system.
- In the upper-right corner of the screen, select Administration> User Management.
In the user list, find the user that you want to anonymize. You can also use the filter form at the top of the page.
In the Actions ... column select Anonymize user. You'll be redirected to a page with details.
For more information, see Anonymizing users.