Confluence unknown users after export from cloud

[Mark Petronic]

I want to export confluence spaces from our cloud instance and host in our new on-prem data center. We are running Confluence 16.5.4 data center. I am exporting one space from the cloud instance and using the Backup and Restore options. All the users associated with the content from that export (in the entities.xml file) are represented by hashed IDs, not usernames or email addresses. For example, I am a site admin so, when I do the export, I see me represented by name in the XML, like this (hashes are altered so not the real ones):

<object class="ConfluenceUserImpl" package="com.atlassian.confluence.user">
<id name="key"><![CDATA[8a7f8085675225c7019875647496f01b8]]></id>
<property name="name"><![CDATA[mark.petronic@noreply.xyz]]></property>
<property name="lowerName"><![CDATA[mark.petronic@noreply.xyz]]></property>
<property name="atlassianAccountId"><![CDATA[557058:24be9740-1019-405d-952c-8ffabcaa6e82]]></property>
</object>
<object class="ConfluenceUserImpl" package="com.atlassian.confluence.user">

But EVERY OTHER user with attributed content or comments in the space look like this:

<object class="ConfluenceUserImpl" package="com.atlassian.confluence.user">
<id name="key"><![CDATA[8a7f80904948425c70167567a496f01b9]]></id>
<property name="name"><![CDATA[557058:35a38e8a-2a49-44a5-8ef1-c89dd4c3750a]]></property>
<property name="lowerName"><![CDATA[557058:35a38e8a-2a49-44a5-8ef1-c89dd4c3750a]]></property>
<property name="atlassianAccountId"><![CDATA[557058:35a38e8a-2a49-44a5-8ef1-c89dd4c3750a]]></property>
</object>

Where their name and lowerName values are mapped to their atlassainAccountId value.

So, upon import into data center, all content attributed to me (mark.petronic@noreply.xyz) gets wired up correctly but ALL OTHER USERS end up looking like:

Unknown User (557058:fa30073f-084e-4601-a781-d39dbd4d7496)

This page talks about account visibility having an effect on exported user information:

https://confluence.atlassian.com/confcloud/migrate-from-confluence-cloud-to-server-724765578.html

Specifically, it states:

Account visibility

In Confluence Cloud, people can choose not to make their profile information visible. This means when a Cloud site is imported into Server, user account information such as their full name, may not be included.

As long as you are logged in as a Site Admin when you complete the site export, email addresses will always be included, and used as the username when the user accounts are created. Users can then log in, and update their profile to provide the missing information. 

So, I AM logged in as Site Admin but still I do not get all users email addresses included in the exported entities.xml file.

As an experiment, I asked one user (who is also a site admin) to change his profile visibility setting to public to see if another export would result in his user showing up with his email instead of his ID hash. Upon export, he still showed up as a hash ID. Then I asked him to do an export and his user object in the export file showed up with his email address but then my user object showed up with my ID hash.

FWIW, this page also talks about the export of usernames from the cloud:

https://confluence.atlassian.com/doc/import-a-space-from-confluence-cloud-967876449.html

So my question is:

How do I get the cloud space export to include the usernames/email addresses of the users instead of ID hashes?

[Stephen Sifers]

Hello Mark,

Thank you for including great amounts of details around the issue you’re having during your migration from Cloud to Data Center. From the details you have, this issue looks to be caused by the GDPR compliance changes which adjusted the way users are now displayed (They’re displayed as a hash instead of email). This is causing your import to not translate the hash to a user thus causing them to be shown as unknown.

To help resolve this issue we’ll create a support request on your behalf. Please work with support to further investigate the user mismatch. You may find your support request at CSP-256101.

Regards,
Stephen Sifers

[Ivan Krasnoselskikh]

Hello, Stephen!

I've this trouble too.

Have you any information about fixing this problem?

[Daniel]

I have a similar issue with export from Confluence Server (v.6.10.1). I need to map users to other user names on import side (migrating spaces to another instance).

The ticket link above does not work correctly, leads to Help Center front page.

Is my issue in server the same as described here for cloud?

For me, those IDs or hashes look like this:

<property name="creator" class="ConfluenceUserImpl" package="com.atlassian.confluence.user"><id name="key"><![CDATA[ff80818164dabce30164eebfbe150004]]></id>
</property>
<property name="lastModifier" class="ConfluenceUserImpl" package="com.atlassian.confluence.user"><id name="key"><![CDATA[ff80818164dabce30164eebfbe150004]]></id>
</property>

Thanks!
Daniel

[Dario B]

Hi @Daniel,

You cannot access support requests/tickets of other people. That's why you are redirected to the Help Center front page. However, from there you should be able to open a new support request for your case (or just go to: https://support.atlassian.com/contact).

Once this has been said. You may also want to try to fix this yourself. Please review below pages for details on how to do so:

• User mentions appear as Broken link after XML import
• How to merge two users' content ownership and permissions in Confluence
• How to get a list of all "Unknown User" in Confluence
• How to list Confluence pages created by Unknown User

I hope this helps.

Cheers,
Dario