Unable To Find Jira Backup (entities.xml) Inside Of Zip File Error

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

Symptoms

When trying to import a Jira Cloud backup into a new Jira Server/Data Cdnterinstallation, the following error occurs:

1 Error importing from zip file: "/path/to/backupfile.zip". Error: Unable to find JIRA backup (entities.xml) inside of zip file: /path/to/backupfile.zip

However, the backup does contain the file and is not corrupted.

Causes

  • The backup that was created is too large due to attachments that were included.

  • The files are in a subfolder inside the zip archive, or their names are not exactly entities.xml and activeobjects.xml.

Workaround

  1. Unpack your backup file, this will create three files.

  2. Create a new zip file containing entities.xml and activeobjects.xml. ⚠️Make sure the files are on the root of the archive, and that their names are correct.

  3. Import this new zip into Jira following the Migrating from Jira Cloud to Jira Server.

  4. Once the import is complete, copy the data folder into the new <jira-home> folder.

Updated on April 8, 2025

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