Unable to add app Confluence (Cloud)

Question

Hello everyone,

I am trying to add a Confluence page to my site, but I keep getting the error "Unable to add app". I used to have Confluence on the site, but it went unused for so long, I think they deactivated it. I don't need my old site back as we are starting fresh, but I would like to add Confluence again. A screenshot of the error is below. We do not have any outstanding bills, and we're only using a free plan of JR. Does anyone have any thoughts on how to resolve this? I tried adding this through the administration page. I am the site administrator.

Samuil Enchev · Answer

Hi @Byron Ojua-Nice

It appears your Confluence subscription was deactivated on May 4th, 2025, due to inactivity. Under Atlassian's Free plan policy, products that remain unused for an extended period are automatically deactivated and eventually purged to reclaim resources.

Since this deactivation happened over a year ago, the product and its data have been permanently deleted. This is why you are seeing the "Unable to add app" error; the system is essentially blocked by the remnants of the old subscription.

How to resolve this:Because you are starting fresh and the old data is already purged, the most effective solution is to create a new site for Confluence. This will bypass the configuration error on your current site and allow you to provision a new Free instance immediately.

You can find more details on these policies here: Track storage and move data across apps | Atlassian Support.

Best,
Samuil

Teem Jira Admin · Answer

Hello everyone,

I had the same issue and here is what I learned from Atlassian Support while resolving:

* services on the Free plan are suspended for inactivity if no usage is detected for 40 consecutive days
* data is retained for 14 days after deactivation. During this retention window, reactivation and data recovery are still possible
* you can reactivate the subscription as a new subscription with no data by contacting Live Chat Support on https://www.atlassian.com/company/contact/purchasing-licensing page as @Andy Heinzer mentioned above
* this reactivation will not affect your other products (Jira, etc), even if they are also on a free plan

I hope this will help with this issue.

Andy Heinzer · Answer

Hi @Mateus Cunha da Silva

It would probably be better to create a new question. When you do so, it should prompt you to indicate which Cloud site URL this pertains to.  That information is not visible to the general public but it would be useful to myself so that I can know which site this is about.

Alternatively, if this is a billing problem or you are having problems adding a product to a cloud site, you should be able to create a support case in https://www.atlassian.com/company/contact/purchasing-licensing/