How to change the version of a space backup
Platform Notice: Data Center Only - This article only applies to Atlassian products on the Data Center platform.
Note that this KB was created for the Data Center version of the product. Data Center KBs for non-Data-Center-specific features may also work for Server versions of the product, however they have not been tested. Support for Server* products ended on February 15th 2024. If you are running a Server product, you can visit the Atlassian Server end of support announcement to review your migration options.
*Except Fisheye and Crucible
Purpose
Confluence prevents the import of space backups which aren't from the same major version. The reason for this is that any schema change between the export and imported version of Confluence will cause the import to fail, leaving you with an incomplete import. Even worse, the failure can be database-dependent, so it may work fine on one particular database but your backup will fail to import later.
Solution
Do not import a modified space backup on a production server. Import the modified space backup on a test server, then export from the test server to create a pristine space backup for the new version.
To change the version of a space backup, do the following:
extract the space backup ZIP file
edit
exportDescriptor.propertiesin a text editorchange the buildNumber to the buildNumber of the Confluence version you wish to import into
zip up the modified contents of the backup into a ZIP file again.
This will allow you to import a backup into a test instance of Confluence. After checking the imported space for errors, export it cleanly from the test server and import the fresh backup into your production server.
If your import fails on the test server due to Hibernate errors, this indicates a schema incompatibility and cannot be worked around. You will need to restore your entire site on an old version of Confluence, and export the space from there. See the last section of Restoring a space for details.
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