Missing People in Confluence People Directory

Problem

There are users missing from the Confluence People Directory.

Diagnosis

Users are expected to appear in the Confluence People Directory after they are created and added to the confluence-users group.

• In Confluence Cloud, users who have been permitted access to Confluence in User Management but have never logged in are not included in the people directory.

• In Confluence Server when External User Management is in use, users who have been permitted access but have never logged in are also not included. If the user has met the applicable conditions above and is still missing, the article identifies two possible causes: corrupted Confluence content indexing, or user metadata that has not been upgraded correctly.

Workaround

Confluence Cloud

Browse directly to the missing user's profile page to trigger their People Directory entry:

1. Construct the profile URL using the following pattern: https://<yoursite>.atlassian.net/wiki/people/<accountId>

   • Replace <yoursite> with your Confluence Cloud site name.

   • Replace <accountId> with the user's Atlassian Account ID (to locate this, go to admin.atlassian.com > Directory > Users, select the user, and copy the ID string from the browser address bar).

2. Navigate directly to that URL in your browser. This will generate and index the user's entry in the People Directory.

Note: This workaround only applies to users who have logged in to Confluence at least once. Users who have been granted access in User Management but have never logged in will not appear in the People Directory until their initial login.

Confluence Data Center / Server

Workaround 1 — Rebuild the search index:

As an admin of your Data Center instance, rebuild the content index. If users still do not appear in the People Directory after the rebuild completes, try Workaround 2.

Workaround 2 — Force the user indexing upgrade task:

As an admin of your Data Center instance:

1. Open this URL in your browser: <Confluence Address>/admin/force-upgrade.action

2. Select userIndexingUpgradeTask in the "Upgrade task to run" dropdown list.

3. Choose Force Upgrade.

Verify the fix:

1. After visiting the profile URL, go to the People Directory (navigate to /wiki/people/ or select "People" from the Confluence top navigation).

2. Search for the user by name. They should now appear in the results.

3. If the user still does not appear:

   • Confirm the user has signed in to Confluence at least once (check their "Last active" status in admin.atlassian.com > Directory > Users).

   • Wait a few minutes and refresh — directory updates may not be instantaneous.

   • If the issue persists after confirming the user has logged in, contact Atlassian Support for further investigation.