Recover admin permission of a personal imported space

Question

From Cloud Instance B, I exported my personal space of my user there using CSV.

In Cloud Instance A (where I have full admin rights) I imported that ZIP and did the macro check, all good. In Confluence Space management settings (/wiki/admin/space-management), I see that this is a personal space with the ~XXXXXX identifier from instance B. No such user exists on instance A obviously.

When I click "Recover admin permission", it gives me the message: "Admin permission has been recovered for the selected space.". On page reload, it looks as before with the same button. I cannot access that space with my admin user.

How can I fix that so I have access to that space?

Arkadiusz Wroblewski · Answer

Hello @Crabston Admin

A slightly sneaky workaround might be worth trying. :)👀😉

Upgrade to a Confluence Standard trial, invite the original account to Instance A, and have it sign in once. An organization admin could then use Log in as user to potentially restore the space permissions.

Alternatively, a Confluence Premium trial provides an Admin Key, although it bypasses content restrictions than restoring space-admin permissions.

If neither works, you should contact Support.

Best,

Arek🤠🧙‍♂️

Martin Runge · Answer

Hi @Crabston Admin,

Have you tried to use XML export and import instead of CSV?

As a workaround, you could try to invite that same account (the email you used on Instance B) to Instance A as a Confluence user, sign in with it, and grant your admin account access from Space settings > Permissions.

If it looks like an orphaned space, you could ask Atlassian Support via https://support.atlassian.com/contact/ to reassign it.

Cheers, Martin

Trudy P Claspill · Answer

Hello @Crabston Admin

Is the destination instance a Free subscription to Confluence? If so, permissions cannot be customized in such an instance. Another user ran into the problem of using "Recover admin permissions" recently and posted about it here in the community, but I'm not quickly finding the link.

The suggestion in that case was to temporarily upgrade to a Free trial of a Standard subscription. During the trial you will be able to adjust the permissions for the space, and then copy the information to another space that is your personal space in the destination instance. Don't forget to proactively downgrade back to the Free subscription before the trial period ends, if you go this route.