There are a number of ways to add users to Confluence:

  • By public signup: If public signup is enabled on your Confluence site, people can add themselves as users of the site. See below.
  • Via an invitation URL: Administrators with Confluence Administrator or System Administrator permissions can send people an invitation URL. See below.
  • Via email: Administrators can prompt Confluence to send people an email message, inviting them to join Confluence. See below.
  • By adding users manually: Administrators with Confluence Administrator or System Administrator permissions can add new users. See below.
  • Via an external user directory: See Configuring User Directories.

Choosing public or private signup, or disabling signup

You can set your signup mode to disabled, public or private. You need Confluence Administrator or System Administrator permissions to change the signup mode.

To set the signup mode:

  1. Choose Invite Users on the dashboard.
    Or take the longer route: Choose Browse > Confluence Admin. Then choose Users > Invite Users.
  2. Choose the signup mode:
    1. Disabled: There will not be a 'Sign Up' link on the Confluence screens. No-one can sign themselves up to Confluence. Only administrators can add users to Confluence.
    2. Private: There will not be a 'Sign Up' link on the Confluence screens. People can sign up if an administrator sends them the Invitation Link. Administrators can add users manually too.
    3. Public: A 'Sign Up' option will appear on the Confluence screens. People can choose the option to add their own usernames. In addition, people can sign up if an administrator sends them the Invitation Link, and administrators can add users manually.

On this page:

Related pages:

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sites with multiple apps. If you are using Confluence-only OnDemand, the information does apply.

You can invite new users to the site by sending them a signup URL. This option is available in both public and private signup modes. When someone visits the signup link in a browser, a Confluence signup screen will appear.

To invite people to sign up:

  1. Choose Invite Users on the dashboard.
    Or take the longer route: Choose Browse > Confluence Admin. Then choose Users > Invite Users.
  2. Set your signup mode to Private or Public, as described above.
  3. Copy the Invitation Link and paste it into an email message, or onto a page on your extranet.

Resetting the signup URL

If your signup mode is private, the invitation URL will include a security token, like this:

http://confluence.example.com/signup.action?token=d513a04456312c47

You can change the URL at any time, by choosing Reset. The previous URL will become unusable. People will no longer be able to use the previous URL to sign up. Instead, they will see an error message that the signup token has expired.

The reset option is available only in private signup mode.

Inviting people via email

You can prompt Confluence to send an email message inviting new users to the site. This option is available in both public and private signup modes. The email message contains some customisable text and the signup link. When the user clicks the signup link, a Confluence signup screen will appear.

To send people an invitation via email:

  1. Choose Invite Users on the dashboard.
    Or take the longer route: Choose Browse > Confluence Admin. Then choose Users > Invite Users.
  2. Set your signup mode to Private or Public, as described above.
  3. Enter one or more email addresses in the field labelled Email To.
  4. Optional: Change the message if you want to.
  5. Choose Send.

Enabling and disabling notifications about user signup

By default, Confluence will send an email notification to all Confluence administrators whenever someone signs up to the Confluence site, either by clicking the 'Sign Up' link or by clicking the invitation URL sent by an administrator.

The notification is enabled by default.

To disable this notification:

  1. Choose Invite Users on the dashboard.
    Or take the longer route: Choose Browse > Confluence Admin. Then choose Users > Invite Users.
  2. Remove the tick from Notify administrators when users sign up.

Screenshot: Setting signup mode and inviting users

Adding users manually

To add a new user:

  1. Choose Invite Users on the dashboard.
    Or take the longer route: Choose Browse > Confluence Admin. Then choose Users > Add Users.
  2. Enter the user's details: username, name, password, and email address.
  3. Choose Create.

Screenshot: Adding and inviting users

Notes

  • Changed user interface in Confluence 4.2.6. Does the screen look different? In Confluence 4.2.4 and earlier, the 'Add User' tab contained all the options for adding a user, inviting users and setting the signup mode.
  • Multiple directories.
    You may define multiple user directories in Confluence, so that Confluence looks in more than one place for its users and groups. For example, you may use the default Confluence internal directory and also connect to an LDAP directory server. In such cases, you can define the directory order to determine where Confluence looks first when processing users and groups.
    Here is a summary of how the directory order affects the processing:
    • The order of the directories is the order in which they will be searched for users and groups.
    • Changes to users and groups will be made only in the first directory where the application has permission to make changes.

    See Managing Multiple Directories.

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