# How to import users on startup in Keycloak 19 **URL:** \ **Category:** Getting advice\ **Created:** [December 12, 2022, 3:23pm UTC](https://forum.keycloak.org/t/how-to-import-users-on-startup-in-keycloak-19/18928 "2022-12-12T15:23:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![gatschet](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/forum.keycloak.org/gatschet/32/4502_2.png) [@gatschet](https://forum.keycloak.org/u/gatschet)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2022, 3:23pm UTC](https://forum.keycloak.org/t/how-to-import-users-on-startup-in-keycloak-19/18928/1 "2022-12-12T15:23:32Z")
How can we imort users in Keycloak 19 on startup. The command /opt/keycloak/bin/kc.sh -v start-dev –import-realm is only to import reamls on startup, but not for users. I would create some default users on startup. Is this only possible with the import command “/opt/keycloak/bin/kc.sh import --dir /opt/keycloak/data/import/ --override true” ? I would prefer startup and create users in one step, how i can do wiht the --import-realm option. ---
**Author:** ![dasniko](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/forum.keycloak.org/dasniko/32/2969_2.png) [@dasniko](https://forum.keycloak.org/u/dasniko)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2022, 7:52pm UTC](https://forum.keycloak.org/t/how-to-import-users-on-startup-in-keycloak-19/18928/2 "2022-12-12T19:52:12Z")
It’s possible with the `--import-realm` flag. If there are users in the realm file, they will be imported. ---
**Author:** ![gatschet](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/forum.keycloak.org/gatschet/32/4502_2.png) [@gatschet](https://forum.keycloak.org/u/gatschet)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2022, 12:33pm UTC](https://forum.keycloak.org/t/how-to-import-users-on-startup-in-keycloak-19/18928/3 "2022-12-14T12:33:38Z")
ok, thank you for the hint. the problem ist, it’s not possible to export the reamls and user to a file and then inport the file. If i do that, there are more than one realm in the file (master and mine) and kc throws a exeption while importing a file with more than one realm! Caused by: com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.exc.MismatchedInputException: Cannot deserialize value of type `org.keycloak.representations.idm.RealmRepresentation` from Array value (token `JsonToken.START_ARRAY`) the only way was to export the realms and users to different files and the merge the realm and users togehter… ---
**Author:** ![dasniko](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/forum.keycloak.org/dasniko/32/2969_2.png) [@dasniko](https://forum.keycloak.org/u/dasniko)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2022, 12:37pm UTC](https://forum.keycloak.org/t/how-to-import-users-on-startup-in-keycloak-19/18928/4 "2022-12-14T12:37:54Z")
Of course it’s possible to export only one specific realm, just read the docs properly: [Importing and Exporting Realms - Keycloak](https://www.keycloak.org/server/importExport#_exporting_a_specific_realm) (I do this regulary for some test- & dev-environments) ---
**Author:** ![gatschet](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/forum.keycloak.org/gatschet/32/4502_2.png) [@gatschet](https://forum.keycloak.org/u/gatschet)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2022, 1:16pm UTC](https://forum.keycloak.org/t/how-to-import-users-on-startup-in-keycloak-19/18928/5 "2022-12-20T13:16:50Z")
After spent many hours to do that, it was not possible to do that on startup. There was a very strange behavior on Keycloak. After i imported the same configuration before start, then it was working! I think there are some bugs on import configuration on startup time. ---
**Author:** ![egml](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/forum.keycloak.org/egml/32/8256_2.png) [@egml](https://forum.keycloak.org/u/egml)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2023, 6:43am UTC](https://forum.keycloak.org/t/how-to-import-users-on-startup-in-keycloak-19/18928/6 "2023-04-13T06:43:20Z")
In my case, I forgot to rebuild Keycloak image for the container. So that updated `realm.json` file was not copied to `/opt/keycloak/data/import/` and script was still using the old file. After rebuild `--import-realm` flag did it’s job and all data was imported, including users. Maybe it will help. ---
**Author:** ![pikosss92](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/forum.keycloak.org/pikosss92/32/9392_2.png) [@pikosss92](https://forum.keycloak.org/u/pikosss92)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2023, 1:50pm UTC](https://forum.keycloak.org/t/how-to-import-users-on-startup-in-keycloak-19/18928/7 "2023-12-06T13:50:39Z")
It is possible to export a realm including the users in the same realm. Make sure that you have such template in your realm.json “users”: [ { “id”: “service-account-alfresco”, “serviceAccountClientId”: “alfresco”, “username”: “service-account-alfresco”, “enabled”: true, “email”: “[service-account-alfresco@muster.com](mailto:service-account-alfresco@muster.com)”, “realmRoles”: [ “offline\_access”, “uma\_authorization” ], “clientRoles”: { “account”: [ “view-profile”, “manage-account” ], “realm-management”: [ “query-groups”, “query-users”, “view-users”, “view-clients”, “view-realm” ] } }, { “id”: “mmustermann”, “username”: “mmustermann”, “enabled”: true, “email”: “[max.mustermann@muster.com](mailto:max.mustermann@muster.com)”, “firstName”: “Max”, “lastName”: “Mustermann”, “credentials”: [ { “type”: “password”, “value”: “mmustermann” } ], “realmRoles”: [ “default-roles-test” ], “groups”: [ “/Test A/Test AB”, “/Test B/Test BA” ] } ] * * * user:mmustermann password: mmustermann