Budibase/budibase · error

Unable to retrieve workspace metadata for import - ${err.mes

Error message

Unable to retrieve workspace metadata for import - ${err.message}

What it means

getNewWorkspaceMetadata reads the workspace metadata doc (docId WORKSPACE_METADATA) from both the temporary import DB and the target workspace DB. If either read fails (missing doc, DB unavailable, malformed export), the original error is wrapped in a plain Error prefixed 'Unable to retrieve workspace metadata for import'.

Source

Thrown at packages/server/src/sdk/workspace/workspaces/import.ts:58

    const [tempMetadata, workspaceMetadata] = await Promise.all([
      tempDb.get<Workspace>(docId),
      workspaceDb.get<Workspace>(docId),
    ])
    return {
      ...workspaceMetadata,
      automationErrors: undefined,
      theme: tempMetadata.theme,
      customTheme: tempMetadata.customTheme,
      snippets: tempMetadata.snippets,
      features: tempMetadata.features,
      icon: tempMetadata.icon,
      navigation: tempMetadata.navigation,
      scripts: tempMetadata.scripts,
      type: tempMetadata.type,
      version: tempMetadata.version,
    }
  } catch (err: any) {
    throw new Error(
      `Unable to retrieve workspace metadata for import - ${err.message}`
    )
  }
}

function mergeUpdateAndDeleteDocuments(
  updateDocs: Document[],
  deleteDocs: Document[],
  metadata: Workspace
) {
  // compress the documents to create and to delete (if same ID, then just update the rev)
  const finalToDelete = []
  for (let deleteDoc of deleteDocs) {
    const found = updateDocs.find(doc => doc._id === deleteDoc._id)
    if (found) {
      found._rev = deleteDoc._rev
    } else {
      finalToDelete.push(deleteDoc)

View on GitHub (pinned to a81a902e9a)

Solutions

1. Re-export the app and confirm the export contains the workspace metadata doc
2. Verify the target workspace exists and its DB has a valid metadata doc before importing
3. Check the wrapped err.message in the error text to identify the root cause (404 vs connection)
4. Confirm export/import compatibility between Budibase versions

const tempMetadata = await tempDb.tryGet(DocumentType.WORKSPACE_METADATA)
const targetMetadata = await workspaceDb.tryGet(DocumentType.WORKSPACE_METADATA)
if (!tempMetadata || !targetMetadata) {
  throw new Error('Export or target workspace is missing workspace metadata doc')
}

function isWorkspaceMetadata(doc) {
  return !!doc && typeof doc === 'object' && !!doc._id && doc._id.startsWith('workspace_meta')
}

try {
  await importToWorkspace(...)
} catch (e) {
  if (e?.message?.startsWith('Unable to retrieve workspace metadata for import')) {
    // inspect inner message; re-export or verify target workspace
  } else throw e
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling importToWorkspace/newMetadata with an export whose temp DB lacks a valid workspace metadata doc, or when the target workspace DB cannot return its metadata doc (e.g. importing into a corrupt or non-workspace DB).

Common situations: Uploading a truncated/corrupted app export file; importing an export from an incompatible Budibase version; target workspace DB was deleted or never initialized; file path points to the wrong artifact.

Related errors

• Unable to determine delimiter
• TableImportError(errors)
• Invalid import url
• Only HTTP(S) URLs are allowed for query import
• Import url must not contain credentials

AI-assisted analysis of Budibase/budibase@a81a902e9a (2026-08-29). Data as JSON: /api/errors/a6873abebebe3018. Report an issue: GitHub.