Why do a get multiple versions of the same file when exporting to XML?

Question

I am using Confluence 3.5.7, and when I exported a Space containing mostly PDFs, I got a file folder for each PDF, but some of the folders contain multiple version of the PDF (same name, but different sizes) in that folder.  It's as if Confluence has saved every version rather than just keep the latest version.  This apparently is taking up an enormous amount of Space on our Confluence server.  Can I instruct Confluence to keep only the latest version of a PDF?  Thanks!

Dan Moran · Answer

Thanks you, Diego!  Very helpful - I appreciate your quick response.  Dan

Diego_88dj6o · Answer

Hey, hello there!

Dan, first thing I would like to address with you is the version that you are currently running. This is a pretty old version and is no longer support by Atlassian for a long time.

Also, it seems that you can bee affected by both of our latest CVEs:

Confluence Security Advisory - 2019-03-20

Confluence Security Advisory - 2019-04-17

With this in mind, we strongly advise you to upgrade your instance. Now, moving forward with the initial question!

Confluence does keep attachment versions. When you export a Space, all attachment versions are kept in the resulting export. When the export is restored in another instance, all the attachments should be present.

You can check what is included in each type of export here in this table:

Export Content to Word, PDF, HTML and XML - Export multiple pages to HTML, XML, or PDF

With this in mind, I have raised this feature request:

CONFSERVER-58172 | Ability to export only latest version of attachment on XML export

A good course of action would be to vote and watch this feature. Voting will increase the feature visibility and watching will keep you up to date with everything.

Looking forward to your reply Dan!