Confluence will only allow you to restore a space if a space by that name does not already exist on the site. If you already have a space with the identical name, you will need to delete or rename the existing space before restoring the new one.

Confluence only supports forward compatibility and backward compatibility for individual space import and export when executed within the same major version of Confluence instances.

Restoration Data Must Share the Same Major Version Number
This means that a space export created in a newer major version of Confluence cannot be imported into an older major version of Confluence. For example, if you create a space export in Confluence 2.4.5, it cannot be imported into a Confluence 2.2.2 instance. It can be however imported into 2.4.6. (because 2.2.2 and 2.4.5 are two different 'major' versions). Similarly, a space export created in 2.2.2 can not be imported into 2.4.5. However, it can be restored in 2.2.10 (since 2.2.2 and 2.2.10 belong to the same major version release).

If such an operation is carried out, an error message similar to the one below will be displayed and the import action will be stopped.

Screenshot: Major Version Clash on Space Restore

You'll need to set up a test server of the same version and import the space, then upgrade your test installation so it's the right major version so that you can perform the export and import successfully. Otherwise, you can try to Change the version of the space export, but please try this on a test instance as well.

(info) You need to have System Administrator permissions in order to perform this function.

To restore a space,

  2. Select 'Backup and Restore' in the 'Administration' section of the left-hand panel.

You can restore data in one of two ways:

  1. Upload a zipped backup to Confluence:
    • Browse for the backup file.
    • Uncheck 'Build Index' if you want to create the index at a later stage.
    • Click 'Upload and Restore'.


  2. Restore a backup from the file system:
    • Select the backup file from the form field displayed. If you do not see your backup file, make you sure that it has been copied into the /opt/java/src/confluence/deployments/conf.atlassian.com/home/restore directory.
    • Uncheck 'Build Index' if you want to create the index at a later stage.
    • Click 'Restore'.

Workaround for restoring Spaces between Major Releases

This method does not apply when restoring spaces from a Confluence Team Hosted site to a Standalone (installed) instance. Please refer to the alternative method if migrating from Confluence Team Hosted to Standalone.

As described in the warning above, you cannot restore a space directly between two major versions. i.e. an individual space backup from 2.2.x cannot be imported into a 2.3.x.
Whilst there is presently no functionality in Confluence that allows you to do so, there is however a manual workaround to this problem.

(warning) Always back up your data before attempting this procedure.

Please follow the procedure below:

  1. Create a manual site backup
  2. Configure a separate installation of the Confluence version you want the space export for i.e. the version into which you want to export the space.
  3. Use one of the two restoration methods listed here to import the site backup.
  4. After restoring the site backup, create the XML backup for the space you want.
  5. Import this backup into your main Confluence instance and you now have that space.

Alternative workaround

Another way is to change the version of a space backup.

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