Disable HTML Escaping message appears randomly in JIRA pages

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

Symptoms

After updating the Jira application, a "#disable_html_escaping()" message appears in random JIRA pages and fields, such as Assignee, Reporter or at the bottom of every page.

(Auto-migrated image: description temporarily unavailable)
(Auto-migrated image: description temporarily unavailable)

Environment

Jira Data Center on any version

Cause

This problem is caused due to customization in the velocity.properties file, for example, to use custom velocity templates. In the latest Jira releases, the velocity.properties file has changed in comparison with older ones. Hence, when bringing over the configuration from the older version to the new install Jira breaks due to the difference between the versions.

Resolution

In order to fix this issue, please follow the steps below:

  1. Shutdown Jira

  2. Replace the velocity.properties file inside the $JIRA-INSTALL/atlassian-jira/WEB-INF/classes/ directory with the original file

    ℹ️ If you are running a different version of JIRA you will need to manually extract this file from a newly downloaded installation ZIP.

  3. Restart Jira

If needed, it is still possible to customize the file, just be sure to customize the one bundled with the application.

Updated on April 24, 2025

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