How to Generate a New confluence.cfg.xml

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If Confluence is started and takes you to the Setup Wizard, as if you were installing it for the first time, that means something has happened to prevent Confluence from finding its home directory, which is defined in <confluence_install_directory>/confluence/WEB-INF/classes/confluence-init.properties.

If the <confluence_home_directory/confluence.cfg.xml file is missing or damaged, here is a way to generate a new, valid one.

Step-by-Step Guide

  1. Back up your production database and Confluence home directory.

  2. Create a new, blank database. This is solely for creating the new confluence.cfg.xml file and will be discarded later.
  3. Create a temporary home directory. This is solely for creating the new confluence.cfg.xml file and will be discarded later.
  4. Edit <confluence_install_directory>/confluence/WEB-INF/classes/confluence-init.properties by changing it to point to the temporary home directory you created in Step 3. 

  5. Start Confluence. 

  6. Go through the Setup Wizard. On the database configuration screen, point Confluence to the database you created in Step 2. 

  7. Complete the Setup Wizard.

  8. Once the installation is complete, shut down Confluence.

  9. At this point you should have a brand new Confluence installation with a temporary home directory containing a new (and complete) confluence.cfg.xml file.

  10. Copy that file to your actual home directory (the one you backed up in Step1). Delete the old confluence.cfg.xml file if it exists.

  11. Modify the new confluence.cfg.xml file by changing the database connection string so that it's pointing to your production DB.

  12. Modify <confluence_install_directory>/confluence/WEB-INF/classes/confluence-init.properties again by pointing it back to your existing Confluence home.

  13. Start Confluence.

Last modified on Oct 7, 2015

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