I was able to fix my issue by following this guide.

dkeller1 it seems like you affected by https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/CONFDEV-25424

Are you able to use postgres instead of mysql?

After tinkering with a small (6.1MB) embedded database XML export, trying to import it to a MySQL db failing again and again, I would weep with joy if there were a more robust database migration tool.

We were using the embedded database because we were testing the software and decided that we would move it to a production environment. Well, looks like that may not happen now, since we will lose all of our initial work. Does not instill much confidence.

Troubleshooting this error is not how I wanted to spend my day:
Caused by: java.sql.SQLException: Incorrect string value: '\xF0\x9F\x92\x99 C...' for column 'TITLE' at row 1

I am sitting here fighting with an antique version of Confluence 3.2 wondering exactly how I am going to upgrade to the latest version.

I have been trying to do this for 18 months - at each stage a problem is solved and a new one appears.

For example, if your confluence-data filesystem is damaged and you lost some attachment files, you will find that the XML dump will quite happily reference them from the database but that the restore/reindex will fail.

This is unforgivable - especially for a system that costs an awful lot. One of the purposes of a dump/restore cycle is to clean and validate what you are dumping - or at least to complain loudly at dump time if it really is broken.

I would expect the dump format to be unified and independent of the database internals so that there would be no issues dumping 3.2 and restoring direct to 5.1. At the moment it cannot even competently dump 3.2 and restore to 3.2! To quote a phrase I heard the other day, I detect a certain amount of plebbery in some of Atlassian's core design and implementation.

In my opinion this particular issue, whilst I agree with its sentiments, is the wrong approach. I would rather have a competent dump/restore feature which would make database migrations simple enough.

Making this process more efficient is critical. As Confluence becomes older the likelihood that your customers will transition to different server environments (and db's) will become much higher. This doesn't seem like a feature, it seems more like a core element.

Would be great, we're having trouble migrating from internal to external database. Any update on this?

It is absurd that this should be rated as a feature!
The whole backup strategy is a nightmare and unbecoming for an "enterprise" wiki. The dog's breakfast that is database backups goes from bad to worse when reading the documentation. e.g. "Atlassian does not support migrating to a new database" - I cannot believe that i am reading that!@#$%
How has it ever been allowed to get to this abysmal state?
Atlassian would be much better off just doing this rather than waiting for votes to count.

Are there any updates on this issue?