How can I bulk delete users in JIRA?

[Anthony Kong]

Basically I want to remove all user records in one go. I am using HSQL at the moment (so SQL operation is probably not feasible)

[Bob Swift (personal) · Accepted solution]

JIRA Command Line Interface has remove user actions. You can use runFromSql action can be used to drive it or files. JIRA rules for deleting a user are enforced by JIRA same as the UI, so you can't delete users with issues etc...

[Danilo Conrad]

Another alternative to the CLI plugin would be writing a script and using the JIRA REST API:

• https://docs.atlassian.com/jira/REST/latest/#d2e4826

The feature request raised for bulk deleting users in JIRA is https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JRA-8047, and you may vote on it to increase its visibility with our developers.

[Tony]

Do you anyone who has such a script? If not, what scripting language would you recommend?

[Richard Cross]

That JIRA has been open for 10 years... I highly doubt it will be actioned.

[muschol]

If you are comfortable doing it via SQL, you can run the HSQL database manager up as follows:

java -cp <path_to_jira_standalon>/lib/hsqldb-1.8.0.5.jar org.hsqldb.util.DatabaseManager -user sa -url jdbc:hsqldb:jiradb

Last time I tried this was with 4.0, but I think it still works.

I think you have to stop Jira first, start HSQL as shown above, make the changes, save them, and then start Jira again.

As always, I'd recommend you backup your Jira first.

Hope this helps.

Matt