Change or Restore Password and Permissions for Root

This page provides instructions for managing the default 'root' user account.

Restrict Root User Permissions

You cannot delete the root account in YouTrack. If you prefer to use another account to administer your YouTrack instance, configure the new administrator account properly and perform any or all of the following operations:

Revoke access permissions from the root account.
Set a custom password for the root account.
Ban the root account.

Taking these steps helps to prevent unauthorised access by the root account.

Reset the Default Administrator Account

When you install YouTrack for the first time, you set the login and password for the default administrator account. This account is assigned the System Admin role in the Global project.

If you forget the credentials for the default administrator account, or have inherited an installation that was configured by another administrator, you can reset the login and password for the account to their default values. You can also set the system properties for the default administrator when you restore the account.

You can also use this procedure when two-factor authentication is enabled and the default administrator no longer has access to the authentication app that is paired with the account. Resetting the default administrator account to its default state also disables two-factor authentication.

Restore Root Password for JAR Installations

If you've forgotten your root password, you can restore it using the -Djetbrains.charisma.restoreRootPassword=true JVM option when restarting the YouTrack server. For more information, see Configuration Parameters.

If you run YouTrack from a command-line interface, the command might look as follows:

java -Djetbrains.charisma.restoreRootPassword=true -jar youtrack.jar 8080

When YouTrack starts, the root user password and permissions are reset to their default values. Log in with the default credentials (root/root). Change the system administrator password.

Restore Root Password for MSI Installations

If you run YouTrack as Windows service, use the following procedure.

To restore your root password:

Stop the service.
Navigate to %programdata%\JetBrains\YouTrack\conf\youtrack.jvmoptions. If the youtrack.jvmoptions file is missing, simply create one by renaming the sample configuration file (youtrack.jvmoptions.dist).
Add the -Djetbrains.charisma.restoreRootPassword=true option to the configuration file. The configuration file format is described in the file itself.
Run the service as usual. The default system administrator credentials are reset to "root" user with the password "root".
Log into YouTrack as the "root" user. Change the system administrator password.
Stop the YouTrack service.
Delete the -Djetbrains.charisma.restoreRootPassword=true option from the configuration file. Otherwise, the system administrator password is reset on every subsequent restart of YouTrack.
Start the service.

Restore Root Password for ZIP Installations

If you installed YouTrack with a ZIP installation, use the following procedure.

To restore your root password:

Stop YouTrack with the command:
<YouTrack Installation Directory>/bin/youtrack.sh stop
Start YouTrack with the command:

<YouTrack Installation Directory>/bin/youtrack.sh start --J-Djetbrains.charisma.restoreRootPassword=true

Make sure to use the double dash before the J option to apply the JVM property only to the current run and not affect any subsequent restart of the YouTrack service.

The default system administrator credentials are reset to "root" user with the password "root".
Log in to YouTrack as the "root" user. Change the system administrator password.

Last modified: 8 July 2019