Config-sync exports creates empty json-files

[martijnpor]

Bug report

Describe the bug

During an config-sync export, approximately 15 config files are generated correctly. After that, only empty config files are generated.

[2025-07-21 11:43:06.460] warn: [strapi-plugin-config-sync]: An empty config file 'core-store.plugin_content_manager_configuration_content_types##api##header-content.header-content.json' was found in the sync directory

It works correctly on strapi version 5.13.1.

It doesn't work with version 5.16.0 and 5.18.1

Steps to reproduce the behavior

1. Go to Settings > Config Sync
2. Click on Export
3. Look at the generated files

(Also happens when using the CLI)

Expected behavior

All config files are generated successfully.

System

• Node.js version: 20.18.1
• NPM version: 10.8.2
• Strapi version: 5.18.1
• Plugin version: 3.1.2
• Database: sqlite
• Operating system: Windows 11

[boazpoolman]

Hi @martijnpor,

Thank you for reporting this issue.
I will investigate this as soon as possible.

[boazpoolman]

Hi @martijnpor,

I've tried to reproduce this but I'm unable to.
I'm running the same versions as you (on a Mac, but that shouldn't matter) and everything works fine. No empty config files.

Could there be something else going on?

Ideally we would be able to reproduce the issue starting from a fresh install of Strapi.
Could you help us by providing the exact steps to reproduce this issue? Starting from scratch.

[martijnpor]

Hi @boazpoolman,

Tnx for looking into it! I'll try to reproduce it with a fresh install, but it will take some time to set up and hard to reproduce i think. The strapi-instance it occurs has 20+ collection types, 20+ single types and 50+ components.

Is there maybe logging available which can be enabled?

[boazpoolman]

Hi @martijnpor,

There is sadly no 'debug' mode for this plugin.
Though if you're looking to debug your own instance instead of starting from fresh, you could start by doing the following things.

1. Compare JSON files with database entries.
   As you might know, each file in the config/sync directory represents a specific row in the database. The table is specified by the first part of the file name (core-store in this case). So you could see if that empty config file is also empty on the database side?

2. Narrow it down
   Can we see if this issue only happens for some config files? If so maby we can narrow down the problem and figure out why it's only happening for that specific piece of config? Are there some anomalies?

3. Is the update path the problem?
   You mention that it does work on version 5.13.1, that is interesting. Could the problem occur when install 5.13.1, export the config, update strapi to 5.18.1, and then export again?

These are just some guidelines. If you need more guidance to debug the issue I'm happy to help. You can reach out to me on email boaz@pluginpal.io or I can add you to our Discord.

[martijnpor]

Hi @boazpoolman,

As a workaround, we resolved the issue by manually exporting around 15 items at a time using the config-sync module. This way, no empty JSON files were generated.

After performing this action for all items, running the full export also worked flawlessly ('There are no changes to export').