Unable to import site backup from server installation to cloud
Asked by Frank H?vin:

I've been running a small Confluence on my own server for a couple of years. Now I want to switch to cloud, and naturally I need my site backup restored on the new site.

I've tried with both the backup.zip file and the xml.zip file, and both yield the same error:

User should not be null

That's after the import claims to be 100% finished. It just says "User should not be null" below the status bar. And nothing more happens. If I try accessing the site, I'm taking to the empty default site.

Furthermore, I KNOW for a fact that these backup files aren't faulty. I signed up for a free trial of Confluence Cloud using another email address than the one already connected to my Atlassian account. I was able to import the bakup.zip file without problems, and the site is now running perfectly on that site. The same file cannot be resored to the other site.

To further troubleshoot this, I created a backup of the site in the cloud site where it worked, and tried importing THAT backup to the new cloud site. Still the same error. So, the problem seems to be with the new site, since perfectly good site backups simplt cannot be imported to it.

Others seem to have had this problem, possibly only with Jira. The work-around seems to be to replicate users manually, and import every workspace manually. This is not an option. If there's no way to fix this bug, then please help me import the backup on your side.

Please advice and help me fix this. I'll not pay a monthly fee for a non-working site.  


Answers:
author: Frank H?vin
body: Seriously, Atlassian?!?!?!?! Is this the level of interest on your side when it comes to selling this service? 3 days and you're not even bothered to provide support on how to GET STARTED using the cloud service? I'm offering to pay much more than I'm doing now - aren't you interested in new/more paying customers?

This should be so basic and easy to fix on your side that it's a bleedin' joke!

Come to thing of it, the answer to that last question seemms obvious, seeing as you've stopped providing actual customer service, and seem to believe that OTHER customers will do the job for you in the forums.

comments: author: Nic Brough -Adaptavist-
body: We're not support, we're a community of end-users of Atlassian stuff.


author: Frank H?vin
body: I was told by Atlassian when they stopped offering email support that they would provide support in the forums instead. Clearly they don't. How can they expect people to pay money for zero support?


author: Frank H?vin
body: Just to clarify:

**Old Site.**This was hosted by me. Worked fine when I took a site backup.

**New Site #1.**Trial cloud hosting. Imported the site backup from Old Site. Worked immediately.

**New site #2.** Trial cloud hosting. Created because I wanted to use my existing Atlassian account instead of a new one.  
- Importing the original Old Site backup (unchanged) doesn't work. "User should not be null".  
- Importing a newly created site bacup of New Site #1 doesn't work. "User should not be null".

The site has only one user, only two workspaces and not very many pages. This should be a complete no-brainer. If it was a complex site with lots of users, normal and admin etc., I'd sort of understand that there might be complications. This is not the case here. And the fact that the same backup works on New Site #1 but not on New Site #2 is quite disturbing imo.

Help me import my site and I'll sign up for a year right away.


author: Alexey Matveev
body: Hello,

Here is a similair ticket:

<https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/CONFCLOUD-52433>

I had the same problem importing a Jira Server backup to Cloud. It turned out, that the email for some of the users was empty. I added a email to this users via database and then it worked.

comments: author: Frank H?vin
body: Well. Seing as I have one trial site that imported the site backup successfully, and that the other trial site is unable to import the exact same file, I wouldn't think that was very likely. Also, there is only one user, and that user is registered with an email address.

Also, for some idiotic reason the cloud site insists on showing the site in my native language (Norwegian), even though I've selected English as language, and my browser uses English.

I cannot even find an option to manage users in the Administration of the site. When hosting it myself, these options were readily available and easy to find.

Hosting confluence on my own server has brought me vast amounts of trouble and pain. Especially when Atlassian decided not to provide email support anymore. I though I'd be rid of that with the cloud hosting, but seing as I cannot even get startet it doesn't look very promising.


author: Alexey Matveev
body: Ok, I got it.

I also filed a ticket in the Atlassian Support at the time I had this problem with the null user. They answered me that it could be because my user does not have any time zone defined. It did not help me at that time. Maybe it will help you.


author: Frank H?vin
body: Yah, maybe it could. However, as I cannot find a way to edit user properties I cannot even test it.

Looking for an alternative to confluence is getting more and more tempting.


Tags: cloud

confluence-cloud