How to clear customizations from Confluence

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

Make sure to back up Confluence's database and installation directory for safety purposes. If this page is being used as a troubleshooting purposes, back up the customization that are instructed to be deleted before deleting them.

  1. Delete any custom HTML in Confluence Admin > Custom HTML

  2. Delete any custom CSS:

    1. Globally in Confluence Admin / Space Admin > Stylesheet

    2. At Space level in Space Tools > Look and Feel > Stylesheet

  3. Reset any custom layouts:

    1. Configured in Confluence Admin > Layouts page to the default Layouts.

    2. At Space level in Space Tools > Look and Feel > Layout

  4. Delete any customization of Sidebar, header, footer section:

    1. Configured in Confluence Admin > Sidebar, header, footer page

  5. Ensure that the default or bundled theme is in use:

    1. Configured in Confluence Admin > Theme

    2. At Space level in Space Tools > Look and Feel > Themes

  6. Ensure that there are no file modifications or files removed (e.g., the mail and activation jar files have to be moved to a different directory in order to activate a mail server) in your installation directory (at Confluence Admin > System Information).

    For example, if any files were removed you would see the following.

    (Auto-migrated image: description temporarily unavailable)

  7. Run the following query in your Confluence database:

    1 SELECT * FROM DECORATOR;

    The result of this query displays all the custom layouts applied on your Confluence site. If this query returns one or more rows, run the following query to delete all of the custom layouts:

    1 DELETE FROM DECORATOR;

  8. Restart Confluence to pick up any changes

Updated on April 8, 2025
Platform
Data Center only
Product
Confluence Data Center

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