Selecting project file types

Owned by Rosen Marinkov
Last updated: May 21, 2024 by Stanley Neychev
2 min read

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You can import complete project export files (ZIP), which include your project data, or project configuration-only export files (XML). To learn more about what is included in the different file types, see our Export options page. To display the Import Projects screen, in your target instance, select Manage Apps from the Jira Administration menu then select Import Projects under Project Configurator in the left sidebar.

Configuration-only imports

To import a configuration-only XML file to your target instance, complete the following steps:

  1. Select Configuration Only (upload XML) from the Project File Type drop-down list.

  2. Click Browse to select your .xml export file.

  3. Select any required changes to the default import options, then click Import Projects. See Import options for more information on each option.

By default, Jira limits the size of uploaded files to 10 MB. If your configuration file is larger than that, the file upload is aborted. If required, you can increase this limit in Jira. See Atlassian’s Configuring file attachments to learn more.

Complete project imports

To import a complete project ZIP file to your target instance, complete the following steps:

  1. Select Complete Project (upload ZIP) from the Project File Type drop-down list.

  2. Click Browse to select your .xml export file.

  3. Select any required changes to the default options, then click Import Projects. See Import options for more information on each option.

Complete projects import mode

When importing complete projects, you can choose between two modes by clicking the toggle button next to the Browse button - Browser Upload(default) and Server Upload.

  • Browser Upload: This uploads the file directly from its original saved location on your computer. Browser upload gives you quicker access to locally stored files.

  • Server Upload: Manually move your ZIP file from your source instance to a folder in your target instance. This is useful for large files, allowing you to leave attachments in a separate folder. In your target Jira instance, go to <Jira-home-directory>/import and create a directory called projectconfigurator. Copy the exported ZIP archive to the projectconfigurator directory to make it available in your target Jira instance.