Can't create project "Namespace is not valid"

Description of the problem

I've exported one of my existing GitLab projects "ise-db" & am trying to create a new project named "mca-db" by importing it, but I get "Namespace is not valid". I've done this many times before & it's worked fine.

Which Group/Project (with full path) is experiencing the issue?

https://gitlab.com/tipping/mca-db

Approximate date/time when the error occurred.

2019-12-6 @ 3:00pm PST

Describe what you were doing right before the issue occurred.

Just logged it, went to new project, Import Project, GetLab Export, gave it the name of "mca-db" & selected my exported file.

Possible workarounds

• create a group namespace as per #39078 (comment 279012216)
• import into a namespace with the same name as where it was exported from

@tipping Thanks for the report. I was unable to reproduce following the steps provided so there must be something else at play to cause the unexpected behaviour. I will move this to the product issue tracker for further investigation

added DEPRECATED_import needs investigation typebug + 1 deleted label

I've tried again today at 2019-12-9 @ 3:07pm PST & still the same issue...

Setting devopsmanage based on ~"group::import".

added devopsmanage label

I have same problem today, I tried the name URL1-MAIN and URL1MAIN. note: I export the project from 12.4.0-ee and try to import it to gitlab.com

NOTE2: I just update to 12.5.4-ee then Export project and went to gitlab.com to import it. and git same problem "Project could not be imported: Namespace is not valid".

mentioned in issue #103403 (closed)

mentioned in issue #121480 (closed)

I too experienced same issue with GitLab Enterprise Edition 12.6.0-ee, I exported project and moved to gitlab.com but ended with Namespace not valid error message.

mentioned in issue #193027 (closed)

Facing same issue man

Same here. Exporting a project from our GitLab Community Edition v12.4.3 and trying to import to GitLab.com leads to the same ‘Namespace is not valid’ error.

We have the same Issue: Exported from GitLab 12.6.0 ee and tried to import in GitLab 12.6.1 ce.

Error: "Project could not be imported: Namespace is not valid" after trying to import the project.

UPDATE Even exporting the project from GitLab 12.6.1 ee and importing it to gitlab.com leads to the namespace error

I encountered the same error when importing an exported gitlab project.

mentioned in issue #195099 (closed)

I have the same problem. Is there a problem regarding the export or is it a gitlab problem? I am using an export from version 11.11.3. I have imported this successfully before.

I have also tried to export from Gitlab.com and upload back and it is not working. It seems that there is a problem with importing functionality.

mentioned in issue #196463 (closed)

Hi, I've verified that the import require the same group name from exported project to the new project

What exactly does that mean? I have no idea what a group name is.

If you export project with the namespace "myname" you must import this project in another namespace that have the same namespace "myname"

I'm going to have to claim dumbness here, I didn't see any namespace options when exporting, where is this? What is a namespace in Gitlab? I have checked again, there are no options when exporting, just an export button.

Thanks for the hint, @adplify. However it took some time to figure out how it works.

In my case, the exported file has the name 2018-12-30_21-42-141_A80803928_apple_phenology_mode_export.tar.gz. I first had to create a new group called a80803928 and then import the project as apple_phenology_mode into this group.

However, some month ago I was able to import a similar project (exported from the same company gitlab source) without creating the group.

Same here, I was able to export & import without jumping through all these hoops before.

What's the difference between a group & a namespace? If they're the same, then they should use the same terminology.

I have no such code as part of my tar export filename, I have no groups (apart from test one I just created to try it out) and the project is, as far as I know not part of a group.

@tipping according https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/group/#namespaces a namespace can be a user name, a group name, or a subgroup name.

@paul.standing what's the name of your exported file?

2020-01-14_09-22-216_{a_user}_driving-sim_export.tar.gz

I've just created a group, invited this group to the old project, and now trying a re-import. I'll report back if that works. As far as I can tell from what you said, my username should have been sufficient since I was a maintainer of the old project?

Paul

I also was a maintainer of the old project. Since it was on a company git, each user was a group (named a<usrname>). I remember that the url was something like .../a<usrname>/projectname, hence I tried to create a group and import to this group.

I don't understand what you mean by "invited this group to the old project". The following could work:

1. create a group a_user
2. after creating the group directly import your *.tar.zip and use driving_sim as Project name and Project slug

Well...I mean I created a group already as you suggested in step 1. And then I "invited" the group to access the old project (I thought maybe on export the group would need to have access to the project to work), so anyone in that group would have access to the old project.

Well the final thing that worked was;

1. Create a group and add that group to the old project.
2. Export the project
3. Import back in using the same project name and project slug as in the file name (in my case driving-sim).

I can't say for sure if all of these steps are necessary.

Paul

Hi @paul.standing, I confirm that this flow work.

I give up.

I had the same problem exporting from gitlab.com to gitlab-12.6.4-ee. After reading the suggestions here I simply tried to use any group to import the project and it worked. So only the group less import is not working.

Hello,

@paul.standing thanks for your solution !

Regards,

Yes, I resolved this issue by importing the repositories in a new group.

When doing the QA tests for release 12.6.4, I confirm I could not import a project in my user namespace: I had to import it in a group. Same with release 12.6.3.

But for 12.5.x/12.4.x import in user namespace is working.

mentioned in issue #197797 (closed)

mentioned in issue #198979 (closed)

On GitLab.com and in the latest Release (12.7.2) the issue seems to be resolved. maybe related: #39078 (closed)

Had the same problem today. Imports not working, even for projects that were exported directly from gitlab.com import back into gitlab.com failed with "Namespace is not valid". For me, it worked in the end, even for imports as user.

Steps I did just before it worked:

• tried endless times to import projects, exported from 12.6.4 community edition, and from gitlab.com, always errors.
• logged out and back in to gitlab.com again (for good measure)
• created a group (never had one before)
• imported a project into this group (successfully)
• import a project into my user
• Success
• but why...? before trying the group, I also never clicked in the field defining the namespace. I can not state with certainty that is was even there. Or at least I didn't realize it is a field where I can change something by dropdown-meny... can someone who still has the error maybe check it looks identical as in my attached image? The field is marked with a green box by me.

I can confirm that after creating a group, the import works even into the user namespace (under 'GitLab.com/ererkka/'), which did not work before creating the group.

It seems to happen when the user has only one namespace (the user namespace) and isn't part of any groups.

Might be related to !20405 (merged) although it seems to not pass the name and path now, just the namespace_id, which causes the "Namespace is invalid" errors.

As a workaround for now, as mentioned above, you can create a group and then imports should work even under your namespace.

mentioned in issue #201628 (closed)

I have the same issue which was posted to another thread,

https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/support-forum/issues/5131#note_278933228

@cat thanks for redirecting to this page.

I've decided to keep the project at the present host till the bug at gitlab.com is fixed. Could you keep us updated when this bug is fixed?

Thanks!

changed the description

The Same issue is happenning here!!Is there any solution for this issue?

I imported sucessfully. The new project should be belong to a group before importing.

mentioned in issue #204651 (closed)

Same issue here, I had a proyect in other account and now I want to import it into this account but I can't without creating a group (I don't want to create a group, just import that project into this account).

To clearly state the workaround:

0. import doesn't work
1. create a group
2. now import works, even if you do not import into that group.

You just need to have a group. You do not need to use it. I just deleted it after importing into my own namespace.

That worked for me too!

changed the description

mentioned in issue #206814 (closed)

mentioned in issue #207751 (closed)

mentioned in merge request !26038 (merged)

mentioned in issue #208613 (closed)

mentioned in issue #209697 (closed)

mentioned in issue #211273 (closed)

mentioned in issue #212097 (closed)

added [deprecated] Accepting merge requests label

added to epic &2959

changed epic to &3054

Is it possible that this error is due to the user reaching the limit of the number of projects that they are allowed to create? See this issue: #34411 (closed)

added Category:Importers estimationneeded labels

changed milestone to %13.0

No longer needed:

jhyson kassio georgekoltsov:

Please review this issue and vote on this thread if it is workflowready for development:

• ✅ ready
• ⛔ not ready (add reason in the thread)
• 1️⃣ 2️⃣ 3️⃣ 5️⃣ weight

cc lmcandrew dmoraBerlin dchevalier2

@hdelalic I believe this should be fixed by !26038 (merged) already and can be closed.

Just tested that this can't be reproduced anymore as described here - should have followed up sorry, closing this.

@cat 👋 Thank you for the update and thanks for fixing this issue!

closed

changed milestone to %12.9

assigned to @cat

added Importer:Project Export/Import label

added groupimport and integrate label and removed 1 deleted label