Platform changes for inactive app installations

[#1]

From 1st November 2025, Atlassian will migrate Forge apps to a new app lifecycle platform. This migration introduces changes to how the platform handles apps with inactive licenses:

• Unified uninstall flow:

  • Unsubscribing and uninstalling an app will be combined into a single ‘uninstall’ action.

  • When an admin selects ‘uninstall’, the app will remain active until the end of the current subscription or trial period, plus an additional 60 days, before it is permanently deleted. No further user action is required during this period.

• Expedited uninstall:

  • Admins can choose to expedite the uninstall process. This will immediately uninstall the app and forfeit any remaining subscription period.

Read more about the change here 

FAQ

What processes will be in place to prevent this in the future?

Going forward, when an license lapses, apps will move through an suspend/delete cycle, providing time for customers to renew a license to maintain use.

What happens to app data?

When the app data is stored within Atlassian, it can be recovered for 30 days. After this period, the data will be deleted.

[Usmankarim Usmankarim]

Very nice work 

[Philip Feldmann - appanvil]

When an admin selects ‘uninstall’, the app will remain active until the end of the current subscription or trial period, plus an additional 60 days, before it is permanently deleted. No further user action is required during this period.

This is a completely new and unexpected behavior for most admins. We've gotten tons of support tickets in the past where admins have been on the new platform and were wondering why the app still stuck around after unsubscribing and why they couldn't uninstall.

Usually, if someone decides to uninstall, they want to get rid of it RIGHT NOW, not in 6 months, at the end of their billing cycle. Please provide guidance for us a vendor on how to handle these cases.

Also, it's quite frequent that module registration partially does not work when installing an app. The quick fix is usually to reinstall the app, which seems to be no longer available due to this change. Again, please provide guidance on how to solve this issue when it comes up.

Thanks!

[Bogdan Butnaru]

Can you please consider adding a third option for “Reinstall”?

This should uninstall the app and then immediately re-install it with the same `installationId` it had before. It should not affect the license or delete any data.

There are many cases where re-installing an app is necessary to fix or even just to debug a stubborn problem. Many customers are also used to this type of operation, and are likely to try it of their own initiative at times. The data loss, even temporary, due to uninstalling a Forge app will make many victims. 

[Chris Cairns - Digital Rose]

Hi, am I understanding correctly that going forward when an administrator presses "Uninstall" the app will not actually be uninstalled, and that instead the app will remain installed and active for 60 to 90 days?   As mentioned previously this is the opposite of what every person expects when they "uninstall" an app (on their phone, computer or anywhere).    "Unsubscribe" would be better,  if still unclear.

What will the reported license state be of the app immediately after this "Uninstall in 2 months" action?  Will it be "unlicensed" so that app can disable functionality?  Or will it still have a valid license reported in the app context and used for conditional module display?

Is there a risk of customer gaming the system where they subscribe for 1 month,  "uninstall" for 2 months, and then resubscribe for month 4 and repeat?

Thank you
Chris