Issue Summary

Our Backup & Restore page within the Confluence configuration indicates you can use site XML backups from very early versions of Confluence to restore data in current versions "Confluence 7.4.5 can accept full site exports from Confluence 4.0 to Confluence 7.4.5", we've seen cases where customers have used this as a method to upgrade. Although we mention this should not be done in our upgrade documentation:

XML export files should not be used to upgrade Confluence. Upgrade Confluence by following Upgrading Confluence.

The statement could easily be misinterpreted as condoning using site exports as a means of upgrade. This however is unsupported and can cause numerous issues as site imports from earlier versions will not trigger certain database schema upgrades and a whole host of other upgrade tasks that are only done during an actual upgrade. Especially from Confluence 4.0 - that is a long time ago.

It is possible to upgrade directly from 5.4.4 to 7.> But from a support perspective even then we would recommend the following upgrade path: 5.4.4 > 5.10.9 > 6.15.10 >7.+ to reduce the risk of any errors in the future.

Perhaps we could rephrase this text in a way that there is no ambiguity about using this method for other purposes such as upgrade.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Go to: > General Configuration > Backup & Restore (<baseURL>/admin/backup.action)
2. Note the following sentence - (which will change between versions):

   Import Confluence data
   Confluence 7.4.5 can accept full site exports from Confluence 4.0 to Confluence 7.4.5

Expected Results

Confluence should never be restored to another major version using an XML, and preferably should be restored to the exact same minor version as we don't even recommend XML backups as a reliable option in production environments - Production Backup Strategy

This should be clarified in the Backup & Restore section of Confluence's configuration UI.

Actual Results

Sometimes the site import will actually work, but can have issues with user accounts or a host of other issues that can't be effectively diagnosed as we have no details on what has occurred using an XML backup to upgrade rather than following the supported upgrade path and could cause further issues by trying to make corrections.

Workaround

• Do not use XML site backups as a method of upgrading confluence, follow Upgrading Confluence