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Confluence Spaces export and import

Marc de Vries

hi!

For days I'm trying to export several spaces from one Confluence-account to another new account, using the data transfer possibility in the admin environment.

In the process there is a validation step (step 4 of 5). Confluence tells me in this step, that every space needs an unique spacecode.

But because it's a new environment, this can't be the case. Therefore, it seems impossible to import the spaces. Does anyone have any ideas on how to solve this?

thanks!

Marc

Accepted answers

Matheus Z

Hi @Marc de Vries,

Welcome to the Atlassian Community!

When importing spaces into a new Confluence environment, each space must have a unique identifier called a "space key." The space key is a short, unique code that distinguishes each space within your Confluence site.

Even though your new environment seems empty, it’s common for Confluence to create some default spaces automatically when a new site is set up. This can include personal spaces (for each user) or other default spaces, and one of these may have a space key that conflicts with the spaces you’re trying to import.

Here’s what I recommend:

Go to your new Confluence environment and review the list of spaces that currently exist. You can do this by navigating to Confluence Settings > Security > Space permissions or use this direct link (replace <site-name> with your actual site name): https://<site-name>.atlassian.net/wiki/admin/permissions/space-permissions/allspaces
If you find any spaces listed, delete them to ensure there are no conflicts with the space keys of the spaces you want to import.
If you don’t see any spaces but still encounter this error, please open a support ticket with our team so we can investigate further and help you resolve the issue: https://support.atlassian.com/contact/#/

Let us know if you need any more help!

Best,

Matheus

All comments

Valerie Knapp_gp7rpj

Hi @Marc de Vries , welcome to the Atlassian Community and thanks for your post.

Yours is the third or fourth post I see about people having issues with the Confluence Data Transfer so I am flagging this post to Atlassian.

Somone will reply to you here (normally in 2-3 business days).

Best wishes

Marc de Vries

thank you Valerie!

Matheus Z

Hi @Marc de Vries,

Welcome to the Atlassian Community!

Here’s what I recommend:

Go to your new Confluence environment and review the list of spaces that currently exist. You can do this by navigating to Confluence Settings > Security > Space permissions or use this direct link (replace <site-name> with your actual site name): https://<site-name>.atlassian.net/wiki/admin/permissions/space-permissions/allspaces
If you find any spaces listed, delete them to ensure there are no conflicts with the space keys of the spaces you want to import.
If you don’t see any spaces but still encounter this error, please open a support ticket with our team so we can investigate further and help you resolve the issue: https://support.atlassian.com/contact/#/

Let us know if you need any more help!

Best,

Matheus

Aaron Geister

I have just test this and I am gettin the error to. Its saying there is a conflict without a conflict actually being there.
Screenshot 2025-10-16 at 10.39.01 AM.png

I have only selected one space that I know doesn't exist and the error is present.
@Matheus Z you might want to look at this further.

Marc de Vries

hi @Matheus Z ,

Thanks for your tips! Here is what happend, maybe good for you to know:

After using you link, I saw all spaces. I saw here two catogories of actions: 'manage access' and 'restore administrator rights'. The space with Manage Access, where the space I saw after the export. The ones with Restore, I did not see after the export. It looks like it has something to do with the rights. In the 'old' environment, i had the rights, and after the export, no longer.

After restoring the rights at the spaces I did not see, all spaces became visable for me.

So the situation is that Confluence was right that there where already spaces with the same code, but during the export, the rights where changed, resulting in a as it looked to me incomplete export. When trying again, the message it all started with arises.

thanks for your help!

Matheus Z

Amazing, @Marc de Vries !

Thanks for confirming that you were able to resolve your issue.

Yes, you might not have permission to view the spaces on the destination site. It's always helpful to check the Space Permissions screen in the Confluence Administration, as it displays all the spaces on your site. Then, as you mentioned, you can regain your admin permissions for these spaces and view them.

Have a great day!

Matheus

Matheus Z

Hi @Aaron Geister ,

Thanks for sharing this scenario with us!

I tested the transfer between the two instances I have, but it worked as expected for me. My recommendation is to download the CSV file that contains the conflicting spaces and then see if it matches with what you see in the Space Permissions screen: https://<site-name>.atlassian.net/wiki/admin/permissions/space-permissions/allspaces

If the spaces are indeed not present, please open a ticket with our support team so we can investigate further.

Best,

Matheus

Stephan Åkeborg

Hi
I did not succeed fully in any imports, just got the menus to the left but nothing more.
When i did the import to Plane (wiki) --> I gott all stuff in, maybe thare are some issues with permissions or anything in the "entities.xml" that messes with confluence, which is not messing with plane.
S

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