The server rebooted, something changed, and now Jira simply will not open. In almost every case one of six things is broken - and Jira almost always writes down which one. Work the ladder in order and you will find it.
A Jira that will not start feels like a disaster, but it is really a queue of small checks. Do not reinstall anything yet. Jira on Windows starts in stages - the Windows service launches a Java process, Java opens the configured port, connects to the database, and loads your data. A failure at any stage stops the whole thing, and each stage leaves evidence in a different place. This guide walks the stages in the exact order a working admin checks them: service first, then port, Java, database, memory, and finally the logs that confirm the real cause.
On Windows, Jira normally runs as a service. If the service is stopped, set to Manual, or crashing the moment it starts, the browser will show nothing at all - no Jira page, no error page, just a connection failure. This is the single most common cause after a server restart, so check it before anything else.
services.msc and press EnterJira's web connector listens on port 8080 by default. If another program grabbed that port first - a second Tomcat, a test web server, another Atlassian tool - Jira's Java process starts and immediately dies with a BindException. This is the classic failure right after installing something new on the same server.
netstat -ano | findstr :8080 - the last column is the PID of whatever owns the porttasklist | findstr 4820 (use your PID) to see the program's nameserver.xml inside the conf folder of the Jira install directoryJira is a Java application, and it is strict about which Java it runs on. A Windows update, a JDK upgrade, or a well-meaning cleanup can change JAVA_HOME or leave Jira pointing at a Java version it does not support. The result: the service fails within seconds, sometimes with no Jira log written at all.
setenv.bat in the bin folder of the Jira install directory and check the JAVA_HOME or JRE_HOME linebin folder and run java -version - confirm the version actually exists thereJira stores everything in its database and refuses to start without it. If the database server is stopped, still recovering after the same reboot, out of disk space, or the password in Jira's configuration changed, startup stops at this stage. Jira reads the connection details from dbconfig.xml in the Jira home directory.
dbconfig.xml from the Jira home directory and confirm the server name, port, database name and username match reality.jira-home.lock file in the Jira home directory later - delete it only when you are certain no Jira process is runningJira's Java process needs a heap - a reserved block of memory - sized in its startup settings. Too little heap and a growing Jira dies with OutOfMemoryError. Too much heap requested on a small server and the Java virtual machine cannot even be created, so the service fails instantly.
setenv.bat in the Jira bin folder and look at JVM_MINIMUM_MEMORY and JVM_MAXIMUM_MEMORYEvery stage above leaves its evidence in two places: the Tomcat logs in the logs folder of the Jira install directory (start with the newest catalina log), and atlassian-jira.log in the log folder of the Jira home directory. The method is simple and it is the step everyone skips.
catalina log and go straight to the endSEVERE or ERROR block - later errors are usually just consequencesCaused by lines under it - the deepest cause is the real faultdbconfig.xml turns a one-hour repair into lost projects. And if this Jira still runs an old Server edition, remember Atlassian ended support for Jira Server in February 2024 - the fix still works, but plan the move to Data Center or Cloud in calm time, not during an outage.The full Jira startup repair, step by step, with the exact screens and log lines shown live.
▶️ Watch Full VideoBecause a restart tests every dependency at once. The Jira service may be set to Manual, the database may still be starting when Jira gives up, another program may grab port 8080 first, or a Java update may have changed JAVA_HOME while the server was up. Check the service, then the port, then the database start order - in that sequence - before changing anything inside Jira.
It means the service launcher works but the Java process is dying during startup. The cause is almost always one of the stages in this guide: a port conflict, a Java version mismatch, a database it cannot reach, or a heap it cannot allocate. Do not keep restarting it - open the newest catalina log in the Jira logs folder and read the first SEVERE error from the end of the file.
Almost never as a first step. Your projects, users and settings live in the database and the Jira home directory, not in the program files, so a startup failure is rarely the program files' fault. Reinstalling over a sick system can overwrite configuration and make diagnosis harder. Back up the home directory and database, read the logs, and fix the one stage that is actually failing.