After Downgrading, Confluence Will No Longer Run
Platform Notice: Data Center Only - This article only applies to Atlassian products on the Data Center platform.
Note that this KB was created for the Data Center version of the product. Data Center KBs for non-Data-Center-specific features may also work for Server versions of the product, however they have not been tested. Support for Server* products ended on February 15th 2024. If you are running a Server product, you can visit the Atlassian Server end of support announcement to review your migration options.
*Except Fisheye and Crucible
Downgrading Confluence is not supported and not recommended. Best practice in this circumstance is either rolling back the upgrade from backups or setting up a fresh installation. Please be aware that this article is provided for your information only, and that you should use it at your own risk.
Symptoms in Confluence 4.3.2 and newer
Confluence starts, but throws a RuntimeException during the startup process. Accessing the site gives something like:
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You cannot access Confluence at present. Look at the table below to identify the reasons
This page will automatically update every 60 seconds.
Time: 2012-09-20 11:54:12
Level:
Type: startup
Description: Confluence will not start up because the build number in the home directory [<HomeDirectoryBuildNumber>] is newer than the Confluence build number [<ConfluenceBuildNumber>].
Exception: fatal
Symptoms in Confluence 4.3.1 and below
Confluence starts, but throws a RuntimeException during the startup process. Accessing the site gives something like:
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You cannot access Confluence at present. Look at the table below to identify the reasons
This page will automatically update every 60 seconds.
Time: 2009-09-02 22:08:18
Level:
Type: upgrade
Description: Upgrade failed. Please consult the system logs for details. You will need to fix these problems and restart. Your server id is: <ServerID>.
Exception: fatal
Cause
Confluence has been downgraded, perhaps unintentionally. This can happen after an upgrade, when the old version's startup.sh was run. Starting up with the correct script, Confluence will try to re-run the upgrade task and might fail due to the schema changes introduced or any other database integrity related problems.
Resolution
If using Confluence 4.3.2 and above and you need to start Confluence with an upgraded home directory, you need to set the com.atlassian.confluence.allow.downgrade system property to true. See Configuring System Properties for how to do that.
If using a version of Confluence older than 4.3.2, you can change your build number in <Confluence-Home>/confluence.cfg.xml file as:
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<buildNumber>1627</buildNumber>
That is the build number for Confluence v3.0.0_01. After it's corrected, restart Confluence.
Get a complete list of build numbers for all Confluence versions at Confluence Build Information.
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