Within Jira, a specific AD user will not reactivate

[David Senterfitt]

I have a particular user that had previously left the company and was disabled within Active Directory. That person has now returned to the company and I have enabled them within Active Directory. JIRA does not show the person as active, still shows inactive. I have forced a LDAP directory synchronization. I have updated a different user's AD group membership and viewed within JIRA to confirm successful directory synchronization.  I have re-enabled a different person and successfully viewed within JIRA that person going from inactive to active.  Where do I go from here?

[David Senterfitt · Accepted solution]

The solution that finally worked for me.

1. Have the reinstated user log out of their computer.
2. Administer their account in Active Directory.
   1. Mark their account back to "Disabled"
   2. Move their account object to a different OU
3. Within JIRA, synchronize the LDAP directory.
4. Within Active Directory
   1. Mark their account back to "Enabled"
   2. Move their account object to desired OU
5. Within JIRA
   1. Synchronize the LDAP directory.
   2. Verify user account is NOT "Deactivated"

[GabrielleJ]

So the question here is why does it need to be disabled, moved to a different OU, sync then repeat the process (inverted) before it can finally catch up. It can mean that it only syncs one time but it does not explain the need to move them to a new OU. We can send a question to Atlassian (support.atlassian.com) and/or update their documentation about this.

[teisyun]

I have the same issue that an AD user can't be re-activated in JIRA.

Can this be solved within JIRA but not touching AD? 

I'm JIRA admin, I don't have access to AD, and there will be lots of hassle to make change in AD.

Thanks. 

[Nastja K]

This solution worked for me without changing OU:

1. Login with the local account.
2. Edit your LDAP connector settings and uncheck the following checkbox in Advanced settings section:
   
3. Force the full synchronisation.

[Michael Ries]

It is 2020 and this problem does still exisist?

In fact we are facing it right now!

Is there a fix I am not aware of? and no, like @Jonas Andersson stated, hacking and crude workarounds are no solutions.

official statement from atlassian? thank you

[Nathan Trout]

I am still waiting on this fix too

[Krzysztof Skrzypczyk]

I will now join this little club here....

[Jonas Andersson]

Another hack to get around it:

Find user:

select ID, user_name from cwd_user where email_address="user@your.org";

update cwd_user set active=1 where ID=<USERID_FROM_ABOVE>;

The restart Jira.

Atlassian, please add functions in jira to re-enable and resync, not to have to hack our infrastructures around to get around easy issues like this. A user should not have to be disabled, moved around, or Jira db hacked and jira becoming unavailable, when the fix is this easy!

[GabrielleJ]

Can you explain more on how you do force LDAP sync? Like here? https://confluence.atlassian.com/jira/synchronising-data-from-external-directories-229838555.html

[David Senterfitt]

To force a sync in Jira, go to Admin --> User Management. On left column of options, select "User Directories". Locate the listing for your Active Directory within the list of "User Directories" and on the right side you should see the word "Synchronise". Select it to synchronize.