License decode error after migrating Jira to Docker

[Masoud Kherad]

Hi everyone,
I had Jira running on my old Linux server (installed directly on the system).
Now I’m trying to move it to a new server running Docker. testing in local server with docker compose .  

Here’s what I did:

• I took a PostgreSQL database dump from the old Jira instance.

• I copied the Jira home directory from the old server to local server  and mounted it to the Docker container.

• I’m using the official atlassian/jira-software:8.20.5 image with PostgreSQL 11.

When I start Jira, it fails to load and I get this error in the logs:

Caused by: com.atlassian.extras.common.LicenseException: Failed to verify the license.

at com.atlassian.extras.decoder.v2.Version2LicenseDecoder.checkAndGetLicenseText(Version2LicenseDecoder.java:213)

... 44 more

2025-10-06 07:38:12,686+0330 JIRA-Bootstrap ERROR      [c.a.jira.startup.DefaultJiraLauncher] JIRA has failed to start because of the following errors: [(Event: Level = (EventLevel: fatal) , Key = (EventType: startup-unexpected) , Desc = We couldn't start JIRA , Exception = An error occurred while trying to start JIRA. We can't give you any more detail right now, we suggest checking the logs for more detail and contacting our support team.<br/>See our documentation for more information on contacting our support team and creating a support zip.)] 

[Charlie Misonne]

Hi @Masoud Kherad 

This is strange indeed. 

Was that license still valid? You could try adding a valid license to the DB manually https://support.atlassian.com/jira/kb/how-to-manage-jira-data-center-license-using-database-queries/