XML backup restore failed with 'The zip file did not contain an entry 'exportDescriptor.properties'' in Confluence

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Symptoms

XML backup file restoration failed and the following is seen from the UI:

The following appears in the atlassian-confluence.log:

2012-08-31 18:58:56,524 ERROR [http-8770-5] [confluence.util.zip.FileUnzipper] unzipFileInArchive The file: exportDescriptor.properties could not be found in the archive: C:\data\confluence\temp\upload_59b7e4d6_1397b8e0951__7f4d_00000010\ds-185627-2.xml.zip

Cause

The XML backup failed to be restored because Confluence was unable to detect/read exportDescriptor.properties file from the backup. This file is required for the restoration process. The problem could happen when exportDescriptor.properties file is missing from the backup file or located inside another sub-folder e.g. ds-185627-2.xml.zip/ds-185627-2.xml.zip/exportDescriptor.properties when it is supposed to be located as such: ds-185627-2.xml.zip/exportDescriptor.properties (this happened when user does not properly zip the file again after unzipping it).

This issue can also be due to insufficient disk space.

(info) If you're using a mac to download the XML export of a space, OS X will unzip the backup, place the unzipped folder in your downloads folder, and put the zipped backup in the trash. In this case, you should retrieve the zip from the trash so that you can re-import it into Confluence if you need to. If you try to re-zip the folder on a mac, you won't be able to successfully import the zip.

This can also be caused by selecting a file other than a Space export zip file.

Resolution

1. Ensure that the XML backup is valid. It should contain at least the following two files:

  1. exportDescriptor.properties
  2. entities.xml

IMPORTANT! Please select the above files directly and zip them up so that they would be at the root of the zip file when compressed. These files should not be located in a sub-folder when it's zipped up, otherwise, Confluence will not be able to find the files during the XML restore.

2. Do not use Windows ZIP compression to compress the XML backup. Use 7Zip or WinZip instead.

3. Please make sure that you have sufficient disk space to import XML Backup.

4. Ensure that you are using an XML backup zip file. You can find these in either the backups or temp folder inside of the home folder.

Last modified on Mar 30, 2016

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