How to disable plugins in Confluence in 6.1+ using Java system properties
Platform Notice: Data Center - This article applies to Atlassian products on the Data Center platform.
Note that this knowledge base article was created for the Data Center version of the product. Data Center knowledge base articles for non-Data Center-specific features may also work for Server versions of the product, however they have not been tested. 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
These parameters will be ignored and do not work as intended if clustering is enabled in Confluence even if it is a single node cluster. They work for Confluence Server and single node Confluence Data Center (without clustering).
Purpose
Confluence added the ability to disable all plugins at start-up using a command-line argument. If you would rather have this set permanently or launch Confluence as a service, you can configure it through Java CATALINA_OPTS arguments.
Solution
- Use the appropriate method to set System Properties for your operating system from Configuring System Properties
- Make the following changes:
If Confluence is running on Linux or is launched manually on Windows using start-confluence.bat
If Confluence is running via a Windows service:
- Stop and Start the Confluence service