Guide · Atlassian facts checked against its docs, 13 October 2026

How to export all Confluence spaces, or the whole site

Confluence has no single "export everything as files" button. To take a whole site, you either make a site backup, which only Confluence can read back, or export each space. Data Center can also put several spaces in one XML backup. Here's how each works on Cloud and Data Center, how to keep attachments and the page tree, and which one to use if you're leaving Confluence.

The short answer

Back up the whole site on Cloud

A Confluence admin opens the settings wheel at the top right, then Settings, then Data management, then Backup manager. Tick Backup attachments to include files, then choose Create backup for cloud and download the file from the link that appears.

• What's in it: pages, whiteboards, some user and group settings such as permissions, Team Calendars data, and attachments if you ticked the box. Attachments in the archive or trash are included too, so the file can be bigger than your reported storage.
• What isn't: spaces in the trash (restore them first), and the content of Confluence databases, which show up in the tree but come out empty.
• Limits: only one backup file is kept, and a new one overwrites it. The download link lasts 14 days. Atlassian supports backup files of up to 30 GB, plus 800 GB of attachments.
• What it's for: importing into another Confluence Cloud site, or into Data Center 6.0 or later. Either way it overwrites everything on the target site. It isn't a browsable copy.

Atlassian also sells a separate Backup and Restore add-on for Premium and Enterprise plans billed yearly, run from admin.atlassian.com, which keeps backups in Atlassian's storage for 30 days. It's for restoring into Atlassian Cloud, not for taking your content elsewhere.

Sources: Atlassian Support on exporting a data backup file, the Backup and Restore overview and its billing.

Back up the whole site, or several spaces, on Data Center

A system administrator goes to the Administration menu, then General Configuration, then Backup and restore, and selects Back up site or spaces. (This screen came with the new backup and restore in Confluence 8.3; earlier versions look different.) On the Create a backup screen:

• Site: spaces, pages, blog posts, comments, drafts, users and groups, app data, and attachments if you tick Include attachments. Atlassian sums it up as everything on your site except user-installed apps.
• Spaces: pick one or more spaces by name. Atlassian suggests multi-space backups for exporting a large site in smaller batches, or by team, project or topic.

When it's done you can download the zip from that screen. It's also saved in the Confluence home directory, under restore/site or restore/space. Unless you tick Save permanently, it's deleted after 72 hours by default. Atlassian warns that this can take some time on large sites.

These XML backups can't go into Confluence Cloud or into an earlier version of Confluence. Atlassian doesn't recommend relying on them as your main backup: for production it recommends your database's own backup tools plus copies of the home directories, because an XML backup taken while Confluence is in use may not be consistent. Scheduled XML backups were removed in Confluence 9.0.

Sources: Atlassian's Data Center docs on backing up a site, backing up a space or multiple spaces and its production backup strategy.

Export every space as files you can open

For a copy you can browse, or one another wiki can import, export each space to HTML. It's one space at a time on both editions:

• Cloud: in the space, ••• next to the space name, then Space settings, then Export space, then HTML. You need to be a space admin, and you get the pages you can view.
• Data Center: Space tools, then Content Tools, then the Export tab, then HTML and Normal Export.

Atlassian says a typical export of about 100 pages takes a few minutes on Cloud (Atlassian Support). For many spaces, start with the ones people actually use: a storage check shows which spaces hold the most files.

Step by step, for both editions, in our guide to exporting a Confluence space.

Keeping attachments and the page tree

• Attachments: HTML space exports include them, in a folder per page named after the page ID. Site and space XML backups include them only if you tick the attachments option.
• The page tree: there's no download button for a tree. An HTML export's index.html lists every page nested as in Confluence, and each page file has its breadcrumbs. An XML export keeps each page's parent and position. To take only part of a tree, use Custom Export on Data Center or pick pages on Cloud's Export space screen.
• The page contents: HTML gives rendered pages; XML keeps each page in Confluence's storage format, with macros as definitions.
• The look: on Data Center, a server admin can change the HTML export's frame with the HTML export template. On Cloud there's no documented way.

Which export to use when you're leaving Confluence

• Moving to Confluence somewhere else: a site backup, or Atlassian's migration tools.
• Keeping an archive people can read: HTML, one space at a time. It opens in any browser without Confluence.
• Moving to another wiki: HTML or XML space exports, depending on what the new wiki's importer reads. A site backup is one large file meant for Confluence to restore, so most other tools can't use it.
• Whichever you choose, keep your Confluence site and a full backup until you've checked the new copy. Exports leave out some content, as listed above.

Moving many spaces into Docmost

Tablewide runs Docmost, an open source wiki, for your whole company at one flat price with unlimited users, from $49 a month. We move your spaces in at no extra charge, on a best-efforts basis, working from per-space exports, HTML or XML, not a site backup. Each Confluence space is its own import and becomes its own Docmost space, with the page tree in Confluence's order and the real page titles; the migration service can run the imports for you. Size your plan from your largest spaces' attachments (the storage check shows them): Team includes 25 GB, Business 100 GB and Company 500 GB.

• Converted: code blocks keep their language, info, tip, note and warning panels become callouts, expand sections become toggles, task lists become to-dos, status labels become status pills, and links between pages, images and attachments carry over.
• Dropped: table of contents, children and page tree macros (Docmost has its own sidebar), live macros such as recently updated, and raw HTML macros. Page layouts become one column. The import report lists every page where something was removed.
• Not carried: comments, page history and page permissions. Labels don't carry over yet. Where the export records it, each page opens with a line naming who created and last edited it in Confluence, and when; Docmost lists the account that ran the import as the author.

Because it's standard Docmost, you can export your pages at any time and import them into a Docmost you run yourself.

Start with one space: the free preview puts one Confluence space into a private Docmost wiki for 7 days, with no card, so you can check how it came across before moving the rest. The preview terms say where your export is stored and when it's deleted.

Get a free preview See the migration service

Atlassian and Confluence are trademarks of Atlassian. Docmost is a trademark of its developers. Tablewide is not affiliated with or endorsed by either.