How to separate the home and install directories in 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
Purpose
It's recommended to create the 'Home' directory separately from the 'Install' directory, however if you've already combined the two directories this will help you untangle them.
Solution
Stop Confluence
Backup your current home/installation directory
Create a new blank home directory (parent only, no sub-directories)
Move the following files/directories to the new home directory
attachments
backups
bundled-plugins
bundled-plugins_language
config
confluence.cfg.xml
imgEffects
index
plugin-cache
plugins-osgi-cache
plugins-temp
thumbnails
viewfile
There are two sub-directories which will need to be created in the home directory:
logs
It's fine to leave this empty, however if you want to keep your existing confluence log move the atlassian-confluence.log file from the existing 'logs' directory to the newly created one
temp
This is also fine to leave empty
Edit the <confluence-install>/WEB-INF/classes/confluence-init.properties file to reflect the new home directory path (the one created in Step 3)
Start Confluence
Did it work?
If you've followed the steps correctly, your new installation and home directories should look like this:
Home
Install
You should have no problems starting Confluence, and the log files should be updated as normal.
If Confluence tries to load a new site (such as in a new installation), you'll need to confirm that the home directory path is specified correctly in confluence-init.properties.
If you find you're unable to search or the recently updated menu isn't showing any content, try rebuilding your search index via Confluence Admin > Content Indexing
Was this helpful?