User receives repeated CAPTCHA prompts on login to Jira server
Platform notice: Server and Data Center only. This article only applies to Atlassian products on the Server and Data Center platforms.
Support for Server* products ended on February 15th 2024. If you are running a Server product, you can visit the Atlassian Server end of support announcement to review your migration options.
*Except Fisheye and Crucible
Symptoms
The user is presented with a CAPTCHA on the login page. After entering the CAPTCHA and trying to login again, the following error "Sorry, your userid is required to answer a CAPTCHA question correctly" is displayed:
Cause
This problem might be caused due to the browser cookies, or by too many failed attempts.
Resolution
- Delete the browser cookies and site data.
- Refresh the login page and try to log in again.
If the problem persists, check the
atlassian-jira-security.log
for failed authentication messages like this one below. A service could be using old credentials and make the CAPTCHA show up - the log will show if that's the case./rest/gadget/1.0/login The user 'myuser' has FAILED authentication. Failure count equals 3
Keep in mind that the number of requests for Jira to show a CAPTCHA is set in System > General configuration and blank means the CAPTCHA is disabled.
To reset the failed user count, follow the steps on https://confluence.atlassian.com/jirakb/reset-failed-user-login-count-442270086.html.