Technical notes: Find and Replace
Databases and Whiteboards not supported
It is not technically possible for us to search and make changes to databases and whiteboards. Atlassian says that they have plans to extent the API to allow Atlassian Marketplace vendors to work with databases and whiteboards but no timeline is available.
From Rovo (Atlassian AI tool, December 2025)
API Access: Atlassian is working to improve APIs for third-party vendors, but currently, third-party macros have limited access to some Confluence features (e.g., databases, whiteboards).
Third-party macros not supported
We do not support finding text inside macros from apps downloaded from the Atlassian Marketplace. These macros are also referred to as third-party macros in order to differential them from those built by Atlassian. Therefore, text in third-party macros do not appear in the preview.
The technical reason is that third-party macro data is not stored in a standardized way. Each third-party macro can store its content in a proprietary or non-standard format. As a result the app can’t reliably access or interpret the text inside those macros.
Support native Atlassian macros
You can find, preview and replace text inside native Atlassian macros. But legacy macros may not be supported. They are being fazed out.
Atlassian macro versus third-party macro
It is not easy to know whether a macro is native or from a third-party. Talk to your administrator.
Native Confluence macros (from Rovo, Atlassian AI tool, December 2025)
Compatibility: Generally work seamlessly with Confluence features like search, find and replace, permissions, and live editing.
Data Access: Content inside native macros can usually be found, previewed, and edited by Confluence tools (e.g., find and replace, word count).
Reliability: Less likely to break with Confluence updates, as they are part of the core product.
Third-party macros for the Atlassian Marketplace (from Rovo, Atlassian AI tool, December 2025)
Compatibility: May not work with all Confluence features. For example, text inside third-party macros often cannot be found or replaced using Confluence’s native tools, and permissions or search may not work as expected.
Integration: May not be as deeply integrated. Often run in a more isolated environment (sometimes similar to an iFrame), which can limit their access to Confluence features.
API Access: Atlassian is working to improve APIs for third-party vendors, but currently, third-party macros have limited access to some Confluence features (e.g., databases, whiteboards).
Multiple language support
Works with Japanese, Chinese, Arabic, Greek, Hindi and more (languages not using the Latin alphabet).
Special characters and accents
Works with special characters. Examples: &, %, $, #, @.
Supports accents and tones on Latin and non Latin alphabets. Examples: é, ö, ł, į, č, έ, ώ.
Space size
The app works well on large spaces (i.e. many pages).
If a space contains more than 200 pages the pages are loaded on demand in the page selection. For spaces below 200 pages, all pages are loaded when the app is opened.
Size limits
For generating the find and replace preview, it might take a while until all pages have been searched. Especially when apply to option “All pages in the space” and/or replace in option “Title and body” have been selected.
When only the title has to be searched, it is done in batches of 200 pages, whereas when the search is done in the page body, it is done in batches of 50 pages.
Page change limits
Only 150 pages can be changed at once. The search is stopped at 150 and the preview is displayed. This number has been chosen to make it possible to change as many pages as possible at once on the one hand. Yet avoid long waiting times for preview, risk of changing too many pages by mistake and allowing the app to run without any mistakes.
If you want to change more than 150 pages you need to run the updates in batches of 150 one after the other.