Confluence server HTML export files are gibberish: PDF is fine. What is problem?
Asked by Kevin Paulus:

The HTML export files are opening to a lengthy string of this:

*** ** * ** ***

<br />

PKd?DS/PKPKd?DSIBID/PKPKd?DSIBID/index.html??_s?8???)??p??T???--0C!i?k/L ??SF?kb,?-'?}?\[?6??\>\>fZ'?$?wW??J\^?/????F?/??:?????!?A\~?o%---L?M??r?q?"???!?1L??W?N???U???vv?? e??'???e!c??0e????q???,3@\>\&????oi?{???????" am???1?d?$s42??? k????4c??f\~I?F?e?\`??B??G4??0dkF???H?p??????{???'?\<\<\<?"14F??jM)???E\&_??"K???=ckMi????M?-ZRc\[???J\*d?\`--P???I???M?TJ5??}?D?"?G??.????@?\[??1_r??K??X????h?b?????\`??\^?+?GZ ?????{?-???u\`?O ????\&???????=?????44c--?)O??x??z?a??b ??\<\<?.Fs?M????iwL?r????RF%\`?"'--\`??dw?r?\|?\>\>?????\<\<?B?????\*?q?"5k???\>+???\`??)?nmC???\<o??{l?:?lq?2d?4pg???m???i???9?n????}?\&??o'v???d?n??b09?"?,'??}33kv\<\<?om?,q3k??\*???? x??="" ??...h1???e???\*?yn'?y\`????#n?my???v??vx3?,8y?lf??0?y@\]d\<\`??i?="" bpm?\<\|k??u??\<w????v????"?j?2,0\|_lb??r?="" ?="" ??p?'?$?tdz????b\<!\]?#s="" y?ju???="" ... ...'u?'c-?lf?w??\]??qi@k?\|????????4?#bs?---?g---??cw\]\<\<w?"??0???i#y?k?\`)qp?\<\<q?v}?m??="" ?bu?\\t?2?a6???\~??s?\^i--r?\]b---yt?t??????ih?)??\[??w\&y???????xi??sp?o'?-?v_???=?Fd??Y$'?Z?}\</o??{l?:?lq?2d?4pg???m???i???9?n????}?\&??o'v???d?n??b09?"?,'??}33kv\<\<?om?,q3k??\*????\>

*** ** * ** ***

<br />

Yet, a PDF export appears complete \& fully legible.  
We have tried Chrome, Internet Explorer, Edge, and Firefox but the HTML files are not useable. What is likely cause nd can this be fixed?  


Answers:
author: Nic Brough -Adaptavist-
body: How are you doing the export to html?

Have you tried opening the downloaded html in a text editor instead of a browser?

Also, could something have been compressing the download?

comments: author: Kevin Paulus
body: Thank you Nic,  
I am using the Confluence interface:   
Space tools \>\> Content Tools \>\> Export  
From there, selecting HTML, Normal Export.  

Is there another way?   

At your suggestion, I tried opening with Notepad, wordpad, and Microsoft Word -- the results were the same.  

As for compression, I don't know -- since I am using the Confluence app, if there is any compression, Confluence would be applying it. How would I determine whether or not there is any compression?


author: Nic Brough -Adaptavist-
body: Thanks for the detail, the main thing I wanted to check there was that it was the built-in export that I also use sometimes, so we're looking at the same thing.

There could be other ways to do it, but we shouldn't need to worry about them, let's stick to the off-the-shelf one.

The standard export drops out a compressed file that contains each page as plain html after you uncompress it.

So, the next question is what you are doing after you have downloaded that single zip? I wouldn't expect the zip to look quite like what you have, but it could be.

Have you unzipped it all? Which page.html is showing all this gibberish when opened?


author: Kevin Paulus
body: Thank you Nic:  
The export files are not coming out in a zip file just a single html file, I believe all the pages are affected. There are no discernably coherent words or phrases visible from start to end of the file.


Tags: confluence-server

export

html

server