Bulk update group memberships for Atlassian Cloud using Postman and REST APIs

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Platform Notice: Cloud - This article applies to Atlassian products on the cloud platform.

Summary

When to use this article

This article may be used whenever there is a need to bulk update and add group memberships in Atlassian Cloud. Note that this article outlines how to update memberships, but does not update the usage of groups in Jira projects, Jira permission schemes, Confluence space permissions, or Confluence page restrictions.

When not to use this article

This article will not work for organizations with users and groups provisioned with Atlassian Guard SCIM. To change group memberships provisioned through SCIM, please take a look at your identity provider administrator.



Identify your organisation’s user management

  1. Head to admin.atlassian.com. Select your organization if you have more than one.

Original

Centralized

As a site administrator or organization admin, Users are found under the Product site.

As an organization admin, Users are found under the Directory tab.


Prepare data

This article assumes a list of users and groups to be added is already available or has been pre-determined. It will walk users through the steps to map user and group IDs.

Original data

Sample file


AB
​1EmailGroup
2vdillow@banc.lyoslo-engineering
3ftoten2@banc.lyhanoi-legal
4amelmeth@banc.lyhouston-sales

Get user identifiers

  1. Go to admin.atlassian.com. Select your organization if you have more than one.
  2. This step is different depending on your user management experience:
    - Original: Select the site's name and URL to open the Admin for that site, then select Users.
    - Centralized: Select Directory > Users.

  3. This step is different depending on your user management experience:
    - Original: Select Export users.
    - Centralized: At the top of the screen, select > Export users.

  4. Select the users that you’d like to export:

    • All users in your site/organization – Include all users in your site/organization, across all groups.

    • Users from selected groups only – Only includes users in your selected groups.

  5. Select "All users" to include active, suspended, and deactivated users.

  6. Select Export users.
  7. An email will be sent when the CSV file is ready to download. Check your junk or spam folder if it’s taking a while.
  8. Open the email and select Download CSV file.
  9. Rename the file to users.csv.
  10. Using a spreadsheet program, remove columns D onwards. This leaves a CSV file with only three columns.
  11. Save the CSV.

Sample file - users.csv


ABC
​1​User idUsername​email​
26155833c071axxx071ff5b24Janaye Floatjfloat@banc.ly
37a4b625f3fd5xxx24d741ac7Anissa Melmethamelmeth@banc.ly
4e2345d51eaa4xxx984e377ceVerna Dillowvdillow@banc.ly
53c5e0172a629xxx061259ed9Dorice Snapperdsnapper@banc.ly
6982bfd68520fxxx71daccb32Florian Totenftoten2@banc.ly

Get group identifiers

  1. This step is different depending on your user management experience:
    - Original: Select Export users.
    - Centralized: At the top of the screen, select > Export users.
  2. Select further options to include additional data in the download, which may assist with filtering the data:

    • Group membership – Includes groups a user belongs to. By default, multiple groups are formatted as a comma-separated list.

      • Pivot to column – Expands group data from a comma-separated list to a column list called Group name. Additionally, it includes a new column for Group id.

  3. Select Export users.

  4. An email will be sent when the CSV file is ready to download. Check your junk or spam folder if it’s taking awhile.

  5. Open the email and select Download CSV file.

  6. Rename the file to groups.csv .
  7. Using a spreadsheet program, remove columns C onwards. This leaves a csv file with only two columns.

  8. Remove all duplicate rows.
    1. Excel -  Highlight all values, click Data > Data Tools > Remove Duplicates.
    2. Google Sheets - Highlight all values, click Data > Data cleanup > Remove duplicates.
  9. Save the csv.

Sample file - groups.csv


AB
​1Group id​Group name​
2d6750b14-1aa8-4ab2-xxxx-a6d44016da32oslo-engineering
3396fae73-650c-4265-xxxx-9c840897fc68houston-sales
40b200647-b447-4eaf-xxxx-55ec31a7d4c9hanoi-legal
52e6317f2-8c9f-4abb-xxxx-afd8fb7c3ebelille-product-management
6705e51a5-b12b-4587-xxxx-f42bc099b777porto-alegre-support

Map data

  1. Open the original list of groups and users in a spreadsheet program.
  2. Into a new tab, import the previously created users.csv  . This assumes the tab is now called "users".
  3. Into a new tab, import the previously created groups.csv  . This assumes the tab is now called "groups".
  4. Open the spreadsheet tab containing the original list.
  5. Ensure columns A and B have the desired user email address and group name respectively.

  6. In cell C1, label the column header accountId  , noting the case is important.
  7. In cell C2, type:

    =XLOOKUP($A2,users!$C$2:$C$1000,users!$A$2:$A$1000,"")

    (warning) Ensure that A2:C1000 in the sheet users covers all users. This assumes column A contains the "Account id" and column C contains "email address" in users . The value of "1000" may need to be increased.

  8. Fill the remaining cells with an equivalent formula, ensuring $A2 is updated to the corresponding cell in the same row, but the remaining arguments remain the same.
  9. Perform a random check to ensure the lookup is behaving as expected.
  10. In cell D1, label the column header groupId  , noting the case is important.
  11. In cell D2, type:

    =XLOOKUP($B2,groups!$B$2:$B$1000,groups!$A$2:$A$1000,"")

    (warning) Ensure that A2:C1000 in the sheet groups covers all groups. This assumes column A contains the "Group id" and column B contains "Group name" in groups . The value of "1000" may need to be increased.

  12. Fill the remaining cells with an equivalent formula, ensuring $A2 is updated to the corresponding cell in the same row, but the remaining arguments remain the same.
  13. Perform a random check to ensure the lookup is behaving as expected.
  14. The resulting list should now be supplemented with account id's and group id's, and contain four columns.
  15. Save the resulting list as a csv.

Sample file


ABCD
​1EmailGroupaccountIdgroupId
2vdillow@banc.lyoslo-engineeringe2345d51eaa4xxx984e377ced6750b14-1aa8-4ab2-xxxx-a6d44016da32
3ftoten2@banc.lyhanoi-legal982bfd68520fxxx71daccb320b200647-b447-4eaf-xxxx-55ec31a7d4c9
4amelmeth@banc.lyhouston-sales7a4b625f3fd5xxx24d741ac7396fae73-650c-4265-xxxx-9c840897fc68

Set up Postman

This section may be skipped if:

  • a collection named "Atlassian Cloud User Management" has previously been set up, and

  • an environment named "Atlassian Cloud" has previously been set up

See page Set up Postman for bulk user management for detailed steps to set up Postman.

Set up REST API call

  1. Select New, or type Ctrl + N  (Windows/Linux) or Cmd  + N (MacOS).

  2. Select HTTP.

  3. Name the request "Add User to Group in Atlassian Cloud".

  4. Change the method from GET  to POST .

  5. In the URL, paste:

    {{cloudUrl}}/rest/api/2/group/user?groupId={{groupId}}

    (warning) Note that Postman variables are case-sensitive and must match what is supplied in the attached environment and spreadsheet.

  6. Select the Authorization tab.

  7. Ensure Type is "Inherit auth from parent".

  8. Select the Body tab.
  9. Select content type raw.
  10. In the content space for Body, paste:

    {
        "accountId": "{{accountId}}"
    }

    (warning) Note that Postman variables are case-sensitive and must match what is supplied in the attached spreadsheet.

  11. Click Save, saving into the "Atlassian Cloud User Management" collection.

Execute Postman Runner 

  1. Change the environment using the environment selector at the top right of Postman, selecting "Atlassian Cloud".

  2. Select Collections in the sidebar.

  3. Select the "Atlassian Cloud User Management" collection.

  4. On the Overview tab, select ▶️ Run towards the top right corner.

  5. Under Run order, ensure there is one and only REST API call - "Add User to Group in Atlassian Cloud".

  6. On the Functional tab, select Run manually.

  7. Click Data.

  8. Navigate to and select the previously prepared csv file from "Map data".

  9. Reduce the number of "Iterations" under Run configuration to 1.

  10. Leave Advanced settings as is.

  11. Select Run Atlassian Cloud User Management.

  12. Check Postman to ensure the runner collection has passed all tests. The run results should show:

    1. "Iterations" and "All tests" to be equivalent in count

    2. Passed (n) where n is the number of iterations

    3. Failed (0)

    4. Skipped (0)

  13. Check admin.atlassian.com to ensure the user in row 2 of the exported list has been made a member of the expected group.

  14. Rerun Postman Runner following the previous steps, with the number of "Iterations" set to the number of rows in the csv file.

Troubleshooting

ErrorComments
401​​Check your credentials.
404
  • Check in the input source csv.
  • Check the case sensitivity of the columns and input variables.
  • Check you are using a comma separated file.
  • Check the Postman console and see what is not being resolved.

References


Last modified on May 1, 2025

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