Cannot login to confluence, captcha is not validating correctly, jira is working fine

[KAL A]

Hi,

       We recently started using jira and confluence sites on premise. Both share the same login using jira internal directory.  I am able to login to jira without any issues but when I tried to login to confluence, it prompts me to enter captcha word which I correctly enter but it doesn't successfully login, instead a new captcha word is prompted, same thing when I try again.

I am the administrator on both jira and confluence. Please guide me to get this issue resolved. 

[Brant Schroeder · Accepted solution]

Can anyone else login to Confluence?  Are any of your other accounts setup as an admin in Confluence?

If you have no other admin accounts that can access confluence you will need to setup a local admin account.  You can follow these steps to gain access - https://confluence.atlassian.com/doc/restore-passwords-to-recover-admin-user-rights-158390.html

Once you have access to Confluence you should check the following:

1. Go to your user directories and make sure that your JIRA Server is above internal.
2. Click on Test and test your JIRA server login to ensure it is working for your account. 
3. Look up your account in confluence and reset your failed attempts.
4. Try and login in a different browser to ensure that your account is working as expected.

[KAL A]

Others are not able to login as well. At this point, we are locked out of confluence. I followed the steps mentioned in the link. I am stuck at 3rd step.

1. Stop Confluence.
   • Stopped confluence as service from windows startup menu.

2. Edit <installation-directory>/bin/setenv.sh or setenv.bat and add the following system property, replacing <your-password> with a unique, temporary password. 

   • Added below line in setenv.bat file
   • set CATALINA_OPTS=-Datlassian.recovery.password=temppswd
3. Start confluence manually (don't start Confluence as a service).

   • I am not able to start confluence manually.  Running start-confluence.bat or startup_bundled_jre.bat  is not starting the confluence. I get unable to establish connection message. 

[Brant Schroeder]

What version of confluence are you running?

[KAL A]

Confluence 6.14.1

[Brant Schroeder]

What OS are you running on and is it installed as a service?

[KAL A]

OS: windows server 2012 standard.

is it installed as a service? How do I determine this..if it helps found below informaiton on readme.txt

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Atlassian Confluence 6.14.1 - Standalone README
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thank you for downloading Confluence 6.14.1 - Standalone distribution. This
distribution comes with a built-in Tomcat 9.0.12 web server and hsql
database, so it runs (almost) out the box.

[Brant Schroeder]

I would assume so.  Since it is installed as a service I believe you will want to start it as such.  Have you given that a try?

[KAL A]

Yes I did try that too, I was able to get to the login page. However, when I enter recovery_admin as username and temporary password. I get the following error

The following error(s) occurred:

• Sorry, an error occurred trying to log you in. Please try again.

[Brant Schroeder]

You can use the old DB method.  Change everything back and follow the directions here: https://confluence.atlassian.com/conf64/restore-passwords-to-recover-admin-user-rights-936511358.html

This takes a little more work but should work.

[KAL A]

It is working now. thanks for you help!