# Can't create operator token: User not found

**URL:** <https://community.influxdata.com/t/cant-create-operator-token-user-not-found/30759>\
**Category:** Systems\
**Created:** [July 18, 2023, 12:52am UTC](https://community.influxdata.com/t/cant-create-operator-token-user-not-found/30759 "2023-07-18T00:52:05Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![sam462](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f9ae1b/32.png) [@sam462](https://community.influxdata.com/u/sam462)\
**Post date:** [July 18, 2023, 12:52am UTC](https://community.influxdata.com/t/cant-create-operator-token-user-not-found/30759/1 "2023-07-18T00:52:05Z")

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I want to backup my influxdb, which has led me down a rabbit hole of authorisation issues. I have quickly realised I need the root token which I don’t have. But I’m not getting anywhere using any guides to generate a new one. I’ve been going around in circles for hours, can anyone help?

Influx user list gives one user, me.

But when I try the following:  
influxd recovery auth create-operator --org org --username username

I get the following error:  
Error: could not find user “username”: user not found

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Anaisdg](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex023/user_avatar/community.influxdata.com/anaisdg/32/6401_2.png) [@Anaisdg](https://community.influxdata.com/u/Anaisdg)\
**Post date:** [July 27, 2023, 7:11pm UTC](https://community.influxdata.com/t/cant-create-operator-token-user-not-found/30759/2 "2023-07-27T19:11:48Z")

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Hello @sam462,  
It looks like you’ll have to create a user first

> **[Create a user in InfluxDB | InfluxDB OSS 2.0 Documentation](https://docs.influxdata.com/influxdb/v2.0/users/create-user/)**
>
> Create a user in InfluxDB using the InfluxDB UI or the influx CLI.

You create the root token during setup generally.

> **[Get started with InfluxDB | InfluxDB OSS 2.0 Documentation](https://docs.influxdata.com/influxdb/v2.0/get-started/)**
>
> Start collecting, processing, and visualizing data in InfluxDB OSS.

What version of InfluxDB are you using. There is a version of 2.x where if you deleted the root token then the user was shooting themselves in the foot and couldn’t create a new one. This was fixed in later versions though.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![sam462](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f9ae1b/32.png) [@sam462](https://community.influxdata.com/u/sam462)\
**Post date:** [August 4, 2023, 6:20am UTC](https://community.influxdata.com/t/cant-create-operator-token-user-not-found/30759/3 "2023-08-04T06:20:53Z")

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Thanks for the suggestion. I was using 2.6 and didn’t have the root token. I believe I had created a user, because if I listed users it was there, but for some reason it still wasn’t working.

I gave up and installed v3 using docker. I’ve lost all my data, but at least I’ve got a more stable install that’s letting me backup. It’s a shame v2.6 was so flawed.