Using a hidden administrative interface to turn dark features on and off

Dark features are hidden (though accessible) because changing them may result in major disruptions to the Confluence environment. However, there may be scenarios where one or more of these options should be disabled or enabled. Typically, this is only done by request from Atlassian, maker of Confluence, during troubleshooting, compatibility testing, or for re-enabling a legacy option. Only a System Administrator can enable or disable dark features.

Determine if you have System Administrator privileges

In order to access and change dark features, you must be a System Administrator.

Visit the special dark features URL

Enter the following URL postfix into your browser window:    

<your Confluence base URL>/admin/darkfeatures.action

 

For example (on a locally-running Confluence instance), the full URL is:

http://localhost:8090/admin/darkfeatures.action

Disable or enable a dark feature

There are two lists of dark features: System Property Dark Features and Site Dark Features. In order to change the former, you must restart the server with or without one of the features using a special command (beyond the purview of this How-To entry).

To change a Site Dark Feature, you must either click the "remove" button (to disable) or manually type a dark feature property name into the text box (to enable).

If using:

  1. Replace me with something to note about this how-to entry that falls outside the scope of all other sections; and
  2. Add the tight-bottom class to the Steps block above to narrow the gap between the two blocks.

If using:

  1. Replace me with something to note about this how-to entry that falls outside the scope of all other sections; and
  2. Add the tight-bottom class to the next visible/non-collapsed block above this one to narrow the gap between the two blocks.

Enabling or disabling Dark Features may cause unexpected and severe changes to your Confluence Environment. Atlassian further warns: "You should be very careful with these features and should change them only when you are explicitly asked by Atlassian support."

If using:

  1. Replace me with something to note about this how-to entry that falls outside the scope of all other sections; and
  2. Add the tight-bottom class to the next visible/non-collapsed block above this one to narrow the gap between the two blocks.