SVN Server Troubleshooting Guide

Assembla uses Subversion 1.12.2 and we highly recommend customers to use SVN 1.12+ based clients for the best experience. If you are using an outdated, pre-1.12 client, you should consider upgrading otherwise SVN stability will suffer significantly.

If you are having issues, here’s a quick list of the most common problems to check:

1. You are using the latest possible SVN Client version;
2. You have the appropriate permissions to commit/checkout your Assembla repository;
3. Your Assembla space is not restricted;
4. Your Internet connection is stable;
5. In case of authentication issues, make sure to clear cached credentials. On UNIX-based systems, authentication data should be stored in $HOME/.subversion/auth. Windows systems store auth data in %APPDATA%\Subversion\auth;.
6. Use version 1.12+, as there were various fixes to HTTP/HTTPS client-side implementation starting with 1.8.10;
7. If all of the above is true and you are still experiencing issues, try to perform a fresh checkout into a brand new folder.

Still experiencing issues?

1. Your SVN client name and version?
2. Operating System name and version?
3. SVN repository URL (checkout URL or SVN tool URL you see in the address bar)?
4. Approximate size of your SVN repository?
5. Nature of repository files – like having a large amount of small files, or large binary files inside?
6. Traceroute results to subversion.assembla.com?
7. Is it only one (or some) of your Assembla repos having the problem, versus all your repos?
8. Are all users on experiencing the problem, or only some users?
9. Are the affected users all at the same location?
10. If an answer for (9) is yes, can some of them try the same operation on the same repo from a different location?
11. Have you seen this problem in the past? If so, did it require a fix from us?
12. At what time, UTC, did this current problem start?
13. Did you try via command line?
14. Is your internet speed to all other websites as fast as usual?
15. Did you check with your Networking team for any issues on your company’s end?
16. Additional details – e.g. are you checking out the whole repository, or a single directory like /trunk etc.;
17. If you are using SVN with Jenkins – let us know the Jenkins SVN Plugin version and the Java version you have installed on a server.

Please note that most of the issues are client-specific. To make sure the issue is specific to your particular SVN client, please use the command line client instead.

Rajesh Kumar

I’m Rajesh Kumar, a DevOps, SRE, DevSecOps, Cloud, and Platform Engineering expert passionate about sharing practical knowledge, real-world experiences, and industry best practices. I have worked at Cotocus and regularly write about technology, travel, investing, health, product reviews, and digital marketing through my various platforms.

I publish technical articles at DevOps School, travel stories at Holiday Landmark, stock market insights at Stocks Mantra, health and fitness guidance at My Medic Plus, product reviews at TrueReviewNow, and SEO and digital marketing strategies at Wizbrand.