Recovery password does not work

[Catherine Tarrant]

I have lost the admin password for my Confluence site (server v7.3.1) and am following the instructions here:  Restore Passwords To Recover Admin User Rights | Confluence Data Center and Server 7.3 | Atlassian Documentation

After completing the changes and restarting the service, I enter Username=recovery_admin and Password=<the password I created>, however the screen simply refreshes and the URL changes to this:  http://localhost:8090/login.action?os_destination=%2Findex.action&permissionViolation=true

I tried it with a couple of different simple passwords to ensure there wasn't something wrong with the password, but still no luck.  No message, no nothing to indicate what the problem is.

Strangely, when I enter Username=recovery-admin (i.e. with a hyphen), I at least get a message indicating that the username and/or password are incorrect.

Any ideas?  I'm stumped.

[Catherine Tarrant]

@Fabio Racobaldo _Herzum_ 

Thanks for your response.  I stopped the service, then updated the Java Options placing this text... "-Datlassian.recovery.password=ABCD1234" at the end (see screenshot).  I clicked Apply, and then OK, and then restarted the service.

Next, I launched the application on localhost and entered the new credentials.  It spins for a few seconds, and then the screen simply refreshes, no error message.  When I try a second time, same thing.

When I try a random account, an error message is provided, "Sorry, your username and/or password are incorrect. Please try again."

Any help or suggestions are welcomed.  I am considering trying the database method next.

Thank you.

[Fabio Racobaldo _Herzum_]

Hi @Catherine Tarrant ,

in my opinion you need to check options at registry level (https://confluence.atlassian.com/kb/setting-properties-and-options-on-startup-for-atlassian-applications-833944787.html)

[Fabio Racobaldo _Herzum_]

probably, that option is not stored at registry level and it caused your issue.

Ciao,

Fabio

[Catherine Tarrant]

Hi @Fabio Racobaldo _Herzum_ 

Thanks, I checked under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE >> SOFTWARE >> Wow6432Node >> Apache Software Foundation >> Procrun 2.0 >> CONFLUENCE(etc)...

and the entry for the password is listed there, so I do not think that is the issue.

[Fabio Racobaldo _Herzum_]

Hi @Catherine Tarrant ,

please verify that you placed 

-Datlassian.recovery.password=<your-password>

in the right file and that you restarted your instance. 

Could you share portion of your file settings so that we can check?

Fabio