Import and export settings

  • Tier: Free, Premium, Ultimate
  • Offering: GitLab Self-Managed, GitLab Dedicated

Settings for import- and export-related features.

Configure allowed import sources

Before you can import projects from other systems, you must enable the import source for that system.

  1. Sign in to GitLab as a user with Administrator access level.
  2. In the upper-right corner, select Admin.
  3. In the left sidebar, select Settings > General.
  4. Expand the Import and export settings section.
  5. Select each of Import sources to allow.
  6. Select Save changes.

Disable unused import sources

Only import projects from sources you trust. If you import a project from an untrusted source, an attacker could steal your sensitive data. For example, an imported project with a malicious .gitlab-ci.yml file could allow an attacker to exfiltrate group CI/CD variables.

GitLab Self-Managed administrators can reduce their attack surface by disabling import sources they don't need:

  1. In the upper-right corner, select Admin.
  2. In the left sidebar, select Settings > General.
  3. Expand Import and export settings.
  4. Scroll to Import sources.
  5. Clear checkboxes for importers that are not required.

Enable project export

To enable the export of projects and their data:

  1. Sign in to GitLab as a user with Administrator access level.
  2. In the upper-right corner, select Admin.
  3. In the left sidebar, select Settings > General.
  4. Expand the Import and export settings section.
  5. Scroll to Project export.
  6. Select the Enabled checkbox.
  7. Select Save changes.

Enable migration of groups and projects by direct transfer

Version history

Warning

In GitLab 16.1 and earlier, you should not use direct transfer with scheduled scan execution policies. If using direct transfer, first upgrade to GitLab 16.2 and ensure security policy bots are enabled in the projects you are enforcing.

Migration of groups and projects by direct transfer is disabled by default. To enable migration of groups and projects by direct transfer:

  1. Sign in to GitLab as a user with Administrator access level.
  2. In the upper-right corner, select Admin.
  3. In the left sidebar, select Settings > General.
  4. Expand the Import and export settings section.
  5. Scroll to Allow migrating GitLab groups and projects by direct transfer.
  6. Select the Enabled checkbox.
  7. Select Save changes.

The same setting is available in the API as the bulk_import_enabled attribute.

Enable silent admin exports

Version history

Enable silent admin exports to prevent audit events when instance administrators trigger a project or group file export or download the export file. Exports from non-administrators still generate audit events.

To enable silent admin project and group file exports:

  1. In the upper-right corner, select Admin.
  2. In the left sidebar, select Settings > General, then expand Import and export settings.
  3. Scroll to Silent exports by admins.
  4. Select the Enabled checkbox.

Allow contribution mapping to administrators

Version history

To allow mapping of imported user contributions to administrators:

  1. In the upper-right corner, select Admin.
  2. In the left sidebar, select Settings > General, then expand Import and export settings.
  3. Scroll to Allow contribution mapping to administrators.
  4. Select the Enabled checkbox.

Skip confirmation when administrators reassign placeholder users

Version history

  • Introduced in GitLab 18.1 with a flag named importer_user_mapping_allow_bypass_of_confirmation. Disabled by default.
  • Generally available in GitLab 18.6. Feature flag importer_user_mapping_allow_bypass_of_confirmation removed.

Prerequisites:

To skip confirmation when administrators reassign placeholder users:

  1. In the upper-right corner, select Admin.
  2. In the left sidebar, select Settings > General.
  3. Expand Import and export settings.
  4. Under Skip confirmation when administrators reassign placeholder users, select the Enabled checkbox.

When this setting is enabled, administrators can reassign contributions and memberships to non-bot users with any of the following states:

  • active
  • banned
  • blocked
  • blocked_pending_approval
  • deactivated
  • ldap_blocked

Max export size

Version history

To modify the maximum file size for exports in GitLab:

  1. In the upper-right corner, select Admin.
  2. In the left sidebar, select Settings > General, then expand Import and export settings.
  3. Increase or decrease by changing the value in Maximum export size (MiB).

Max import size

To modify the maximum file size for imports in GitLab:

  1. In the upper-right corner, select Admin.
  2. In the left sidebar, select Settings > General.
  3. Expand Import and export settings.
  4. Increase or decrease by changing the value in Maximum import size (MiB).

This setting applies only to repositories imported from a GitLab export file.

If you choose a size larger than the configured value for the web server, you may receive errors. See the troubleshooting section for more details.

For GitLab.com repository size limits, read accounts and limit settings.

Maximum remote file size for imports

Version history

By default, the maximum remote file size for imports from external object storages (for example, AWS) is 10 GiB.

To modify this setting:

  1. In the upper-right corner, select Admin.
  2. In the left sidebar, select Settings > General.
  3. Expand Import and export settings.
  4. In Maximum import remote file size (MiB), enter a value. Set to 0 for no file size limit.

Maximum download file size for imports by direct transfer

Version history

By default, the maximum download file size for imports by direct transfer is 5 GiB.

To modify this setting:

  1. In the upper-right corner, select Admin.
  2. In the left sidebar, select Settings > General.
  3. Expand Import and export settings.
  4. In Maximum download file size (MiB), enter a value. Set to 0 for no file size limit.

Maximum decompressed file size for imported archives

Version history

  • Introduced in GitLab 16.3.
  • Maximum decompressed file size for archives from imports field renamed from Maximum decompressed size in GitLab 16.4.

When you import a project using file exports or direct transfer, you can specify the maximum decompressed file size for imported archives. The default value is 25 GiB.

When you import a compressed file, the decompressed size cannot exceed the maximum decompressed file size limit. If the decompressed size exceeds the configured limit, the following error is returned:

Decompressed archive size validation failed.

To modify this setting:

  1. In the upper-right corner, select Admin.
  2. In the left sidebar, select Settings > General.
  3. Expand Import and export settings.
  4. Set another value for Maximum decompressed file size for archives from imports (MiB).

Timeout for decompressing archived files

Version history

When you import a project, you can specify the maximum time out for decompressing imported archives. The default value is 210 seconds.

To modify the maximum decompressed file size for imports in GitLab:

  1. In the upper-right corner, select Admin.
  2. In the left sidebar, select Settings > General.
  3. Expand Import and export settings.
  4. Set another value for Timeout for decompressing archived files (seconds).

Maximum number of concurrent import jobs across the instance

Version history

  • Introduced in GitLab 19.1.

Every import job holds a Sidekiq thread for its entire duration. The workers that orchestrate an import (file-based project and group imports, direct transfer, and the stage jobs for the GitHub, Bitbucket Cloud, and Bitbucket Server importers) can run for a long time, so if too many run at once they can occupy the whole Sidekiq thread pool and block other background work.

The import_jobs_concurrency_limit setting caps how many of these long-running jobs run at the same time. The limit applies independently to each worker type, not as a single shared total. Jobs beyond a worker type's limit wait until a running job of that type finishes.

The default is 100 concurrent jobs per worker type. To change it, send an API request to /api/v4/application/settings with import_jobs_concurrency_limit. For more information, see the application settings API.

Maximum number of simultaneous import jobs

Version history

Within a single project import, you can cap how many child jobs (for example, one job per issue or pull request) an importer schedules at the same time. Use this to control how many jobs a single import schedules concurrently. It applies to:

This is separate from import_jobs_concurrency_limit: that setting caps the long-running orchestration and stage workers across the whole instance, but independently per worker type, whereas this setting caps the short-lived child jobs inside a single import. Because child jobs finish quickly, their defaults are much higher.

The job limit is not applied when importing merge requests, because a hard-coded limit for merge requests already avoids overloading servers.

The default job limit is:

  • GitHub importer: 1000.
  • Bitbucket Cloud and Bitbucket Server importers: 100. The Bitbucket importers have a low default because a good default hasn't been determined yet. Instance administrators should experiment with a higher limit.

To modify this setting:

  1. In the upper-right corner, select Admin.
  2. In the left sidebar, select Settings > General.
  3. Expand Import and export settings.
  4. Set another value for Maximum number of simultaneous import jobs for the desired importer.

Maximum number of simultaneous batch export jobs

Version history

Direct transfer exports can consume a significant amount of resources. To prevent using up the database or Sidekiq processes, administrators can configure the concurrent_relation_batch_export_limit setting.

The default value is 8 jobs, which corresponds to a reference architecture for up to 40 RPS or 2,000 users. If you encounter PG::QueryCanceled: ERROR: canceling statement due to statement timeout errors or jobs getting interrupted due to Sidekiq memory limits, you might want to reduce this number. If you have enough resources, you can increase this number to process more concurrent export jobs.

To modify this setting, send an API request to /api/v4/application/settings with concurrent_relation_batch_export_limit. For more information, see application settings API.

Export batch size

Version history

To further manage memory usage and database load, use the relation_export_batch_size setting to control the number of records processed in each batch during export operations.

The default value is 50 records per batch. To modify this setting, send an API request to /api/v4/application/settings with relation_export_batch_size. For more information, see application settings API.

Troubleshooting

Error: Help page documentation base url is blocked: execution expired

While enabling application settings like import source, you might get a Help page documentation base url is blocked: execution expired error. To work around this error:

  1. Add docs.gitlab.com, or the redirect help documentation pages URL, to the allowlist.
  2. Select Save Changes.

Related topics