Google Apps users experiencing 'Unexpected error in the authentication system' when logging in

Symptoms

When users try to log in to Google Apps they receive the error 'Unexpected error in the authentication system'.

Cause

There are two possible causes:

1. The user that established the connection between Google Apps and Atlassian Cloud is no longer an administrator on Google Apps. ID-189 - "Sign in with Google" stops working when the establisher ceases to have administrative access in Google Apps

2. A group exists in JIRA or Confluence Global Permissions that does not exist in User Management. As a result when a user logs in Atlassian Cloud tries to add them to a group that doesn't exist and fails.

Resolution

If the administrator has been removed from Google Apps (problem 1) there are two potential solutions:

1. Follow How to Change Google Apps Domain in Atlassian Cloud Instances (only for the same domain) to remove integration and then set it again with a new user that has administrative access. If no Atlassian Cloud admin can log in because Google Apps isn't working they can use the 'forgot my password' functionality from the Atlassian Cloud login screen to reset their Atlassian Cloud password and then log in directly.

2. Give the user administrative access in Google Apps again.

If there is a group that has been given JIRA or Confluence use global permission that no longer exists (problem 2) you have two options:

1. Recreate the group

2. Remove the group from Global Permissions. Have a read of the following two documents for more information:

   1. Managing global permissions - JIRA

   2. Manage global permissions - Confluence