Export and import

Taking a whole workspace with you, and bringing one in.

An administrator can export the whole workspace to a single file and import such a file into another Alba Ticket installation. It works the same in every direction: from the hosted service to your own installation, from your own installation to the hosted service, or back into the workspace the export came from. Both are under Administration, Export and import.

Exporting

Press Start an export. The export runs in the background; the page shows how far along it is and you can leave it. When it is done, Download gives you a .tar.gz file, which any archive tool can open. The file is kept for 7 days and then removed; you can remove it sooner with the delete icon.

The export holds everything in the workspace: projects, tickets with their whole history, comments, boards and sprints, custom fields, workflows, helpdesk settings, accounts, groups and roles, settings, everything imported from Jira with its original data, and every attachment.

It leaves out what should not sit in a file:

  • Passwords. After an import people log in with an email link and can set a password again.
  • The secrets of single sign-on connections and integrations. These arrive switched off, for an administrator to complete and switch on.
  • Storage locations and their keys. Imported attachments go into the importing workspace's own storage.
  • Sessions, login links and pending invitations. Invite people again after importing.
  • AI agents' tokens and the applications registered to ask for them (OAuth clients). Members connect their agents again.
  • Members' calendar connections and the applications registered with calendar providers. Members connect their calendars again.
  • A Git-backed space's whole connection: its repository, branch, folder and token. The space and its pages arrive unconnected, for an administrator to connect again (see Connecting the space).
  • An import's source settings, such as a code host's repository and token, and incoming email's settings and credentials. They arrive empty, incoming email switched off, for an administrator to enter again.

The file is a copy of everything in the workspace. Keep it as carefully as the workspace itself.

Exports and imports use the workspace's attachment storage, so a storage location has to be set up first. A single file of more than 5 GB cannot be uploaded to storage in one piece; for a workspace that large, whoever runs the installation can export it on the server instead (see the technical guide).

Importing

Choose the export file. It is uploaded straight to storage, and then the page asks you to confirm. An export larger than one upload allows (5 GB) can be imported on the server from the command line, which the technical guide's backups page describes.

An export can be imported into:

  • An empty workspace, one with no projects and no tickets. The default statuses, ticket types, roles and any other accounts are replaced by the imported ones. Your own account, the storage locations and the list of transfers stay. If the export holds an account with your email address, you stay logged in, now as that account; either way you remain an administrator.
  • A workspace that was filled from the same source before, or the workspace the export came from. Everything is matched by its identity: what is already there is updated, what is new is added. Nothing is duplicated and nothing is deleted, so importing the same file twice, or a newer export of the same workspace, is safe. Passwords people have set here, storage, and integrations you have completed here are left as they are.

A workspace that already has projects or tickets of its own is refused, because merging two workspaces is not something that can be done reliably. An export also cannot be imported as a second copy beside its original on the same installation.

If anything goes wrong the data is left exactly as it was before the import, and the page says why. Attachments are copied after the data; if some could not be stored, import the same file again and only the missing ones are copied.

The importing installation must be at least as new as the one that made the export. After an import the search index is rebuilt in the background.