Administering the Atlassian Companion App

Confluence users can edit an attached file using its native desktop application, then automatically save the file back to Confluence.

The download and re-upload of files is managed by the Atlassian Companion app, which needs to be installed on each user's machine (not in the Confluence installation directory) to enable file editing.

On this page:

Download and install the Atlassian Companion app

To edit files, users need to install the Atlassian Companion app and have it running in the background. The first time a user selects 'Edit with' in file preview, we prompt them to download and install the app. See Edit Files for details.

Screenshot: the download prompt shown in file preview


If your users aren't able to install applications themselves, you may want to distribute the app to them or deploy using the Microsoft Installer.

Download the latest version

Download the Atlassian Companion app for Mac or Windows.

Install the Companion app via Microsoft Installer (MSI)

We also provide a Microsoft Installer package (.msi file) to deploy the Atlassian Companion app for Windows across multiple users or machines. By default, the Companion app installs to the Program Files directory, but you can customize this.

Download the Atlassian Companion MSI (69 MB)

If you deploy using the Microsoft Installer, the Companion app won’t automatically get the latest updates, including security and bug fixes, so some maintenance is required.

We may update the Companion app before or after we release a new version of Confluence. Check the Atlassian Companion app release notes to make sure you're on the latest version.

Disable file editing

System Administrators can remove the edit files option from their Confluence site. This means the 'Edit with' button won't appear when users open a file in preview.

To disable the edit files option in Confluence:

  1. Go to 

    > Manage apps

  2. From the drop-down menu, select System.
  3. Click Confluence Previews from the displayed list.
  4. Click the enabled modules link.
  5. Hover on the Companion edit button module and click Disable.

Using terminal server environments

The Edit Files feature isn't compatible with terminal server environments (for example, Windows Remote Desktop Services) where each virtual desktop session shares the same network interface. This may be something we include in a future release. See Jira for more information:

CONFSERVER-56302 - Getting issue details... STATUS

Recover edited files

When a user edits a file, that file is also downloaded and saved to the Atlassian Companion folder on their computer. Files are cleared every time the Companion app restarts.

Follow our guide to accessing Confluence files edited with the Atlassian Companion app.

Last modified on Dec 9, 2019

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