Create, edit, or remove a user

In Jira applications, users can be managed manually or via an external user management system. This page helps you manage users manually and references external user management systems where required.

To log in and access a Jira application, a user must have application access. Users can obtain application access if they’re members of a group assigned to the app. Membership in these groups can be changed at any time on a per-user basis.

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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. 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 service desk users.

Create users manually in Jira

If you have a small team, you can create users directly in Jira.

Consider external user management ( 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 large teams.

To create a user
  1. In the upper-right corner of the screen, select Administration User Management.
  2. In the User browser that opens, select Create User button (located in the upper-right corner of the screen).

  3. Enter the UsernamePasswordFull Name, and Email address.

  4. 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.

  5. 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.

  6. Select Create another if you want to create more users.

  7. 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

You can invite users to Jira through email. When they accept the invitation, they will be given access to the applications set as default

You need to configure SMTP mail server to send notifications before you can invite users via email.

To invite a user
  1. Open the User browser and click the Invite Users.
  2. Enter the email addresses of the users that you want to invite. Add multiple users by separating the email addresses with a comma.
    Note: You cannot invite users by sending an invitation to a distribution list.
  3. Select the Send button to send the invitations.
    • 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 the users 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. 

Others

Automatically create a user via a mail handler 

You can use a mail handler to allow Jira applications to create issues or comments via received emails. The handler can also be configured to create new users based on the sender's email address.

This method can be used from time to time if you want Jira to create new user accounts from any received email messages whose From: field contains an address that does not match one associated with an existing Jira user account. This allows the creator of the email message to be notified of subsequent updates to the issue.

See Creating issues and comments from email for detailed information.

Connect to an internal directory with LDAP authentication

You can connect your Jira application to an LDAP directory for delegated authentication. This means that Jira will have an internal directory that uses LDAP for authentication only. Choose this option if you want to set up a user and group configuration within your application that suits your needs, while checking your users' passwords against the corporate LDAP directory. This option also helps to avoid the performance issues that may result from downloading large numbers of groups from LDAP. 

See Connecting to an internal directory with LDAP authentication for more information on configuration.

Allow users to sign up publicly

For some organizations using Jira Service Management, it's appropriate to allow users to create their own accounts without needing a Jira admin. This is a good way to empower users without using up all of your Jira Service Management licenses. However, this method can raise some security concerns.

See Enabling public signup and CAPTCHA for more information.

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 mail handler, they will be given access to the applications you select.

To set default applications
  1. In the upper-right corner of the screen, select Administration User Management.

  2. On the left-side navigation panel, select Application access.

  3. Select Set defaults for new users.

  4. 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 or Active Directory, you'll have to make changes in that system rather than in Jira.

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.

To update user information
  1. In the upper-right corner of the screen, select Administration User Management.
  2. Find the user in the user list by using the filter form at the top of the page.

  3. Click Edit in the Operations column.

  4. Make the changes to 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.

To update a password
  1. Select Administration () User Management.
  2. Find the user in the user list using the filter form at the top of the page.
  3. Click on the username.
  4. Choose Actions > Set Password.
  5. 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. 

To add a property
  1. In the upper-right corner of the screen, select Administration User Management.
  2. Find the user in the user list using the filter form at the top of the page.
  3. Select the Full name of a user you want to edit.

  4. Select Actions > Edit Properties. The Edit User Properties screen will be displayed.

  5. 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 administratoto 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.

To deactivate a user
  1. In the upper-right corner of the screen, select Administration User Management.
  2. In the user list, find the user that you want to deactivate

  3. In the Actions menu, select Edit Details.

  4. Deselect the Active checkbox.

  5. Select Update to confirm the change.

  6. 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 -based user directory, with the exception of Jira users configured with "delegated authentication". 

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 watchers to an issue whenever it’s created or edited. However:
    • A user who was assigned, was watching, or had reported any issues in Jira before their account was 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 not receive any email notifications from Jira, even if they continue to remain the assignee, reporter, or watcher of issues.
  • Will still be a member of the groups they belong to.

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.

To delete a user
  1. In the upper-right corner of the screen, select Administration User Management.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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.

Anonymizing users

Anonymizing a user will hide or delete any data that can identify them as 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.

To anonymize a user
  1. In the upper-right corner of the screen, select Administration User Management.
  2. 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.

  3. In the Actions ... column select Anonymize user. You'll be redirected to a page with details.

For more information, see Anonymizing users

Last modified on Sep 28, 2022

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