Jira logging fills up my harddisk with an invisible, orphaned file

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

Summary

Problem

JIRA fills your Hard disk with invincible orphaned files

Jira logging fills up my harddisk with an invisible, orphaned file ("atlassian-jira.log"). This file grows up to 43GB until the computer crashes as there is no disk space left. It occurs since I set up JIRA logging with a rotation log file. JIRA is running on a Windows 7 Enterprise PC on a NTFS formatted SSD.

Diagnosis

Environment

  • Windows OS

Diagnostic Steps

  • Unusually quick increase in JIRA log file size.

Cause

  1. Plugin that cannot connect properly.

  2. Path set for JIRA Log

Solution

Resolution

Case 1: Plugin:

  • Find the culprit plugin in your atlassian-jira.log, stop JIRA and remove it from the plugins folder if it is a 3rd party plugin.

  • Clear the plugin cache if it is a system plugin should issue persist despite a restart.

Case 2: Improperly Set JIRA Log Path

  • Set just the file name instead of full path to file else it would cause the orphaned files.

Updated on April 2, 2025

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