For a Server or Data Center move to Atlassian Cloud, treat Jira and Confluence as separate migrations with one coordinated identity plan. Clean up email addresses, check group names and membership in Cloud, migrate users and groups before projects or spaces where practical, and run a trial before production. Then compare users, permissions, references, history, and app data with the source. The migration assistants support core data transfer; Marketplace app data needs its own vendor-supported path.
Plan Jira and Confluence as separate migrations
Jira and Confluence each have a Cloud Migration Assistant and a separate pre-migration checklist. Prepare each source application and its Cloud destination independently, while coordinating identity decisions across both. Atlassian’s Jira pre-migration checklist and Confluence pre-migration checklist cover topics including supported versions, identity cleanup, permissions, groups, apps, backups, and test migrations. Use the live checklists for current requirements, supported versions, and Cloud limits.
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Start with an inventory of active and inactive users, groups, external directories or identity providers, shared Jira and Confluence accounts, and accounts and groups already in Cloud. Record which people need access and which projects, spaces, integrations, or apps they depend on. That inventory becomes the basis for choosing migration scope and checking the result.
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Both assistants provide ways to include everyone or limit user and group migration to people associated with selected content. The right choice depends on whether completeness of identities or a narrower migration scope matters more to your move.
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| Scope | What it covers | Trade-off to consider |
|---|---|---|
| All users and groups | All directory users and groups for Confluence, or all users and groups for Jira, as offered by the assistants. See Atlassian’s Confluence user migration guidance and Jira user migration guidance. | Can include people who are not tied to the selected spaces or projects. Atlassian notes that migrating all users can be faster than checking only a subset against spaces; see its user and group sequencing guidance. |
| Users and groups related to selected spaces or projects | People associated with the content in scope. Jira offers options to include project-role assignees and members of included groups; Confluence offers users related to selected spaces. Details are in Atlassian’s Jira and Confluence guidance. | A narrower selection may omit people referenced outside the selected scope. For Confluence, check Team Calendar invitees who are not linked to selected spaces; include all directory users or the relevant spaces if those invitees need to remain. |
For either scope, account for the people who own, comment on, modify, or are mentioned in included content. Confluence’s related-user migration is intended to keep mentions, comments, and page history active, but users tied to other related content may need to be included as well. Atlassian describes the Jira data scope in its guide to choosing Jira data to migrate.
Reconcile identities and permissions before moving content
Match people using consistent email addresses
Atlassian Cloud identifies user accounts by unique email address. Resolve duplicate or invalid addresses and synchronize external directories before migration. If the same person exists in both source applications, make sure their Jira and Confluence records use the same email address so content can map to the same Cloud account. See the Jira and Confluence checklists for identity preparation guidance.
Check group names and membership on both sides
Jira groups can link to existing Cloud groups by name. A same-named group with different members or intended access can change effective permissions and create permission escalation. Compare group names, membership, and intended project access before allowing a group to link. In Confluence, a space permission that refers to a group missing in Cloud may not migrate. Create or migrate required groups, then check effective space access. Atlassian documents these behaviors in its Jira and Confluence user and group guides.
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Migrate users and groups before projects or spaces where practical
Atlassian recommends migrating users and groups before Jira projects or Confluence spaces. With those identities in place, later content migrations can link user references such as mentions, assignees, and comments. Pre-migrating users, groups, and attachments can also reduce downtime, according to Atlassian’s sequencing guidance.
Choose the assistant’s all-user or related-user scope based on the inventory and access requirements you have already established. If you limit scope, check the assistant’s inclusion options and account for related content such as Jira project roles or Confluence calendars before you start.
Run a representative trial migration
Atlassian strongly recommends a trial migration to a test or staging site before the final Confluence migration, and its Jira and Confluence checklists also call for test migration. See Confluence migration instructions, the Jira checklist, and the Confluence checklist. For Jira, keep the production Cloud Migration Assistant version the same as the one used for the tested migration, as Atlassian advises in its Jira migration guidance.
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Design the trial around the risks in your environment rather than a generic sample. Include accounts from different directory sources, shared Jira and Confluence users, inactive or deleted users, group-based permissions, restricted projects or spaces, comments and mentions, and content that depends on apps. Compare each destination result with the corresponding source and the migration scope you agreed. This sample design is a practical validation approach, not an Atlassian-prescribed universal test specification.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Validate the destination before production cutover
Use the source inventory and agreed scope as a checklist. Validate concrete examples from both applications rather than relying only on a migration assistant’s completion status.
- Accounts: Confirm that intended users resolve to the right Cloud accounts and that email or identity-provider differences have not produced duplicate or mismatched identities.
- Access: Check expected groups and memberships, then test effective project and space access for representative users. Confirm that access has not broadened unexpectedly.
- References and history: Check sample issue and page owners, assignees, comments, mentions, and history against the source. Atlassian lists issue history among Jira entities handled by the assistant in its Jira migration coverage guide.
- Apps and integrations: Check each required app’s data and integrations in Cloud using the app vendor’s supported migration path. A successful core migration does not establish that app data transferred.
Plan separately for app data and changed Jira IDs
The migration assistants cover supported core migration paths, not an automatic guarantee that every Marketplace app’s data will move. Atlassian’s Jira guidance says app partners need to provide an automated migration path; the Confluence assistant supports app migration for apps assessed as needed and with a vendor-provided path. Confirm the path with each publisher and test the app-specific result. See Atlassian’s Jira migration coverage and Confluence assistant guide.
Jira entity IDs change in Cloud. If scripts, exports, integrations, or downstream systems rely on old IDs, plan how to update those references. Atlassian points to an ID-mapping API in its Jira migration guidance; the procedure and suitability for your integration need to be checked against the current documentation.
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Proceed with production cutover only when the trial and destination checks match the approved scope: the right people resolve to the right accounts, access behaves as intended, representative content retains its user references and history, and required apps and integrations have a verified path. Keep Jira and Confluence checklists, identity decisions, group comparisons, trial findings, and validation results together so the migration team can resolve exceptions before the live move.
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