Exporting issues
Create a backup of your Jira Cloud site, including attachments. Backups help you restore and recover data, or migrate to Jira Server or Jira Data Center.
You can export the following data to backup your Jira Cloud site:
- Issues
- Users and user group settings
- Issue attachments, user avatars, and project logos (if selected)
You must export automation rules separately. Learn more on how to export and import automation rules.
You can backup your Jira data at any time. However, if you include attachments, avatars, and/or logos, you'll need to allow 48 hours between backups.
How to create a backup for Jira Cloud
To create a backup for cloud:
Choose
> SystemIn the IMPORT AND EXPORT section, select Backup manager.
Under Backup for cloud, select Create backup for cloud.
You can tick the Include additional files option if you want to include issue attachments, user avatars, and project logos in the export.
After the backup is complete, select Download backup file.
Jira only allows a single export event to occur simultaneously, so for example, it's not possible to generate a site backup and copy data into a sandbox at the same time.
How to create a backup for Jira Server or Jira Data Center
To create a backup for server:
- Choose > System
- In the IMPORT AND EXPORT section, select Backup manager.
- Under Backup for server, select Create backup for server.
You can tick the Include additional files option if you want to include issue attachments, user avatars, and project logos in the export.
After the backup is complete, select Download backup file.
A note about team-managed projects and server backups
Jira Cloud products are regularly updated with the absolute latest features and improvements. They run on completely different branches of development than the latest downloadable version of Jira Server or Jira Data Center products. Some of these features are incompatible between cloud and server products.
Team-managed projects, for example, do not exist in Jira Server or Jira Data Center. To create a usable server backup, you need to delete all team-managed projects from your Jira Cloud site. Learn more about team-managed projects.
We recommend moving important issues from these projects into server-supported project templates (those administered by schemes). To do so:
- Create new, server-supported projects to receive issues from each team-managed project.
- Choose > System
- In the IMPORT AND EXPORT section, select Backup manager.
- Under Backup for server, select Move issues and follow the instructions to move important issues over to your new server-supported projects.
Jira lists all your team-managed projects, links to filters that contain those projects' issues, and information about the project's owner to help you investigate what issues you may want to keep in your backup.
You can also delete all team-managed projects outright. To do so:
- Choose > System
- In the IMPORT AND EXPORT section, select Backup manager.
- Under Backup for server, select Delete all team-managed projects.
How to structure the export file
Once you have generated and unzipped a backup file, you should have an output similar to the following:
JIRA-backup-20161021
├── activeobjects.xml
├── entities.xml
├── data
│ ├── attachments
│ └── avatars
└── logosNote that database data is stored in both activeobjects.xml and entities.xml. Issue attachments, user avatars and project logos are stored in corresponding directories. If you don't want to import attachments, avatars or logos to your new Jira Cloud site, you can remove the corresponding directory and then zip the modified directory tree before importing.
How to import backup data into Jira Cloud
- First, we recommend splitting your cloud backup file into two separate files: a database file containing your
activeobjects.xmlandentities.xml, and a separate one for your attachments and other media. This can help avoid timeout errors and reduce the risk of issues when importing. - Once you've split your backup into separate database and media files, follow the instructions on importing issues to import them to cloud.
- After the import, log in to your new Jira Cloud site with the same admin account you used to log in to your original site.
Cross-application links (links to a source file page from a Jira issue) will point back to the corresponding source location after the import.
When importing a backup of a Jira Cloud site that was exported from a Jira Cloud site, custom email passwords will not be copied. If you use custom email channels, you will need to reconfigure them after the import is complete.
However, custom email passwords will be copied when importing a backup of a Jira Cloud site into a Jira Server site or vice-versa.
How to import backup data into Jira Server
- Structure your export file as mentioned above.
- Follow the instructions on the Migrating from Jira Cloud to Jira Server page.
- After the import, log into your Jira Server instance with the sysadmin username and corresponding password.
Cross-application links (links to a source file page from a Jira issue) will point back to the corresponding source location after the import.
We create the sysadmin user during the backup process. This user is created to allow you to log in with the necessary Jira System Administrator permission (a server-specific permission not available in the cloud) after restoring data in Jira.