Can't change users project limit in GitLab

Question

I have installed GitLab-CE from the projects package repo on a Ubuntu 16.04 LTS system.

The package version is this:

8.9.5-ce.0

The architecture is AMD64.

I have configured everything fine. I have HTTPS and so on. I created my admin account and so on. Now I would like to create projects and here the problems start. When I try to create a project I get this error:

Limit reached Personal project creation is not allowed. 
Please contact your administrator with questions

So I Googled what to do. First I changed the default project limit for new users. Actually it's 1000. This doesn't solved the problem.
So I checked the project limit of my account. It's 0. Very strange I thought..... so I tried to change it also to 1000.
GitLab says it saved the settings successfully but...... it's still 0 and can't be changed.
Also I can't set the ability to create groups. The above error still appears and I don't know how to solve this.

Does someone has an idea how to do so? Only thing I would think is to change it in the DB directly but I think this would be very dirty.

Answer 1

Your project limit is indeed 0, as shown in app/models/project.rb#check_limit().

This is normally set with Default projects limit in /admin/application_settings and Save.

The OP PHPDeveloper adds:

I made the mistake to set the user as External User. This resets the set users project limit always back to 0.

If not, check your config/gitlab.yml file for the default_projects_limit line.

Issue 14544 does mention:

When the account is already made you have to change the project limit value in the account settings as admin user.
The "default project limit" is for when a new account is created.

Answer 2

Changing the default project limit will indeed not affect the limit of existing users. To change the limit for an existing user, navigate to admin/users then edit the user. Then scroll down to the "Access" section and change the "Projects limit" text field to the appropriate limit. Test on GitLab Version (9.5.5)

Answer 3

Credits to Gabriel Ferreira Rosalino

1. The project limit needs to be changed in the user settings at youtgithost/admin/users/username/edit

2. I made the mistake to set the user as External User. The crappy fact: This is possible for Admin accounts. This resets the set users project limit always back to 0. There is no nice error handling in the GUI. Make sure the user is not an External User. They never can create projects. It sounds very nice that the just can access projects when access is granted but it's the wrong thing. The GUI is broken here. If the user isn't an External you should be able to change the limit.