Missing exportDescriptor.properties
Asked by David Gall:

Hello,

I have exported a backup from a confluence 5.9.4 server and am attempting to import it into another confluence 5.9.4 server, however the process does not work. Each import results in the following error:

"The zip file did not contain an entry 'exportDescriptor.properties'. It contained: plugin-data/com.atlassian.activeobjects.confluence.spi/activeObjectsBackupRestoreProvider.pdata"

I have generated a handful of backups, none of them contain this .properties file. According to a [very old JIRA ticket](https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/CONFSERVER-12206) I should be able to just create that file and add it to get around this 10 year old bug, however there is no information in that ticket regarding where this file should be placed in the context of the .zip file. (root? in a folder? etc) There is also no information on what the file should contain, apart from samples from version 3.x.

Can someone please provide a the text of this .properties file and the correct location it should reside?

Thank you.


Answers:
author: Bill Bailey
body: This happened to me just now with the latest security alert. Had a server on 6.13.22 to keep in sync with contract work I was doing. Got hit over the weekend and discovered that my daily backups are not complete. Missing the exportDescriptor.properties and entities.xml.

I think first is easy to replace, but the second is more important. Is there any way to generate that file based on what appears to be a partial backup? Even partial is better than nothing.


author: AnnWorley
body: Hi David,

Please let me know how you are generating the backups. When I backup my test instance at Confluence Admin\>Back-up and Restore, there is an exportDescriptor.properties file:

![Screen Shot 2018-06-19 at 4.57.48 PM.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/24936i6BB3B6AD849AAB89/image-dimensions/346x145?v=v2 "Screen Shot 2018-06-19 at 4.57.48 PM.png")

Thanks,

Ann

comments: author: David Gall
body: Good morning Ann,

I am generating backups using this exact process (not familiar with any other way of generating a backup, but perhaps that might work?). Our instances may differ in that ours is used in production for quite a few teams, so I believe it's a big bigger than the average instance. Most around here seem to have backups \~200MB or so, ours is \~3GB. I have read on these forums that there can be "issues" backing up large instances.

Will you please share your exportDescriptor.properties file? I believe I can get around this bug by just placing that in the zip and re-zipping.


author: AnnWorley
body: Hi David,

Here is my exportDescriptor.properties file but it seems to have a lot of instance specific entries:

```
source=server
buildNumber=6169
createdByVersionNumber=6.9.0
ao.data.version.com.atlassian.mywork.mywork-confluence-host-plugin=6.2.6
ao.data.version.min.com.atlassian.confluence.plugins.confluence-space-ia=5.0
exportType=all
createdByBuildNumber=7701
backupAttachments=true
defaultUsersGroup=confluence-users
ao.data.list=com.atlassian.mywork.mywork-confluence-host-plugin, com.atlassian.confluence.plugins.confluence-space-ia
ao.data.version.min.com.atlassian.mywork.mywork-confluence-host-plugin=1.1.30
ao.data.version.com.atlassian.confluence.plugins.confluence-space-ia=15.0.0
```

Is the backup job taking a long time to complete? If so, the scheduled job that cleans up the temp directory may be deleting the exportDescriptor.properties file before the rest of the backup completes. You may want to temporarily disable the Clean Temporary Directory scheduled job as described on [Scheduled Jobs](https://confluence.atlassian.com/doc/scheduled-jobs-96567525.html).

If the backup and restore process continues to be problematic, another way to copy the server to another instance is documented in [Migrating Confluence Between Servers](https://confluence.atlassian.com/doc/migrating-confluence-between-servers-184150.html)

Thanks,

Ann


author: AnnWorley
body: A colleague pointed out that there is a known issue with OSX throwing out the exportDescriptor.properties file, as described in this guide: [Restoring a Site](https://confluence.atlassian.com/doc/restoring-a-site-152034.html)
> If you get an error saying that Confluence can't find the exportDescriptor.properties file, chances are OS X has unzipped the backup for you and sent the original zipped file to the trash. You need to retrieve the original zip file from the trash and then try the import again.


Tags: confluence-server

server