Can't import project from gitlab.com

Summary

I cannot import a project from gitlab.com on a newly setup GitLab CE from the omnibus package - neither from the options GitLab export nor from Import project from Gitlab.com

Steps to reproduce

  1. Schedule an export from https://gitlab.com/<repo_name>/edit -> Export project, wait for email, download tar.gz archive
  2. Installed on AWS Ubuntu 14.04 following instructions from the official instructions
  3. Log in as root, click on New project
  4. Set the name, click on GitLab export
  5. Choose file from step 1. -> Import project
  6. Wait about 10 seconds (or one refresh)

Expected behavior

The project to be imported

Actual behavior

Red banner with The repository could not be imported. and message:

No such file or directory @ rb_sysopen - /var/opt/gitlab/gitlab-rails/shared/tmp/project_exports/root/product_reviews/VERSION

Output of checks

Results of GitLab application Check

Checking GitLab Shell ...

GitLab Shell version >= 3.6.6 ? ... OK (3.6.6)
Repo base directory exists?
default... yes
Repo storage directories are symlinks?
default... no
Repo paths owned by git:git?
default... yes
Repo paths access is drwxrws---?
default... yes
hooks directories in repos are links: ... 
1/5 ... repository is empty
Running /opt/gitlab/embedded/service/gitlab-shell/bin/check
Check GitLab API access: OK
Access to /var/opt/gitlab/.ssh/authorized_keys: OK
Send ping to redis server: OK
gitlab-shell self-check successful

Checking GitLab Shell ... Finished

Checking Sidekiq ...

Running? ... yes
Number of Sidekiq processes ... 1

Checking Sidekiq ... Finished

Checking Reply by email ...

Reply by email is disabled in config/gitlab.yml

Checking Reply by email ... Finished

Checking LDAP ...

LDAP is disabled in config/gitlab.yml

Checking LDAP ... Finished

Checking GitLab ...

Git configured with autocrlf=input? ... yes
Database config exists? ... yes
All migrations up? ... yes
Database contains orphaned GroupMembers? ... no
GitLab config exists? ... yes
GitLab config outdated? ... no
Log directory writable? ... yes
Tmp directory writable? ... yes
Uploads directory setup correctly? ... skipped (no tmp uploads folder yet)
Init script exists? ... skipped (omnibus-gitlab has no init script)
Init script up-to-date? ... skipped (omnibus-gitlab has no init script)
projects have namespace: ... 
1/5 ... yes
Redis version >= 2.8.0? ... yes
Ruby version >= 2.1.0 ? ... yes (2.3.1)
Your git bin path is "/opt/gitlab/embedded/bin/git"
Git version >= 2.7.3 ? ... yes (2.7.4)
Active users: 2

Checking GitLab ... Finished

Results of GitLab environment info

System information
System:		Ubuntu 14.04
Current User:	git
Using RVM:	no
Ruby Version:	2.3.1p112
Gem Version:	2.6.6
Bundler Version:1.13.5
Rake Version:	10.5.0
Sidekiq Version:4.2.1

GitLab information
Version:	8.13.0
Revision:	053a0a2
Directory:	/opt/gitlab/embedded/service/gitlab-rails
DB Adapter:	postgresql
URL:		http://ec2-52-211-244-234.eu-west-1.compute.amazonaws.com
HTTP Clone URL:	http://ec2-52-211-244-234.eu-west-1.compute.amazonaws.com/some-group/some-project.git
SSH Clone URL:	git@ec2-52-211-244-234.eu-west-1.compute.amazonaws.com:some-group/some-project.git
Using LDAP:	no
Using Omniauth:	no

GitLab Shell
Version:	3.6.6
Repository storage paths:
- default: 	/var/opt/gitlab/git-data/repositories
Hooks:		/opt/gitlab/embedded/service/gitlab-shell/hooks/
Git:		/opt/gitlab/embedded/bin/git

Possible fixes

I checked the file VERSION at the specified location - it doesn't exist. The directory and all the files are owned by git:git

The file VERSION is not in the archive either.

So I tried creating a dummy VERSION file. This got me a step further with the following message on importing:

end of file reached

At last, I tried putting a dummy numbered version 0.1.5 in the VERSION file based on a hunch reading this page which led me a step further:

unknown attribute 'ldap' for ProjectMember.