DocumentationExperience Cloud KCS

Stage author instance down due to incompatible bundle and content issues after restore

Last update: August 27, 2026

This article describes how to recover an Adobe Experience Manager stage author instance that fails to start or serve content after a restore, due to incompatible bundles and missing service users.

Description description

Environment

Adobe Experience Manager (AEM)

Issue/Symptoms

  • The stage author instance is inaccessible for an extended period (8+ hours).
  • Browsing the author instance results in errors or blank pages.
  • The login page at /libs/granite/core/content/login.html is inaccessible.
  • Error logs show issues with incompatible bundles and missing service users.
  • Errors related to org.apache.aries.spifly.dynamic.bundle and linkcheckerTransformer are present.
  • Restoring from multiple backups and restarting AEM do not resolve the issue.

The following errors may be observed in the logs:

Error loading bundle org.apache.aries.spifly.dynamic.bundle: not compatible with Java 21.

Error in the linkcheckerTransformer configuration at
/apps/< application> /config/rewriter/versioned-clientlibs.

Service user missing errors.

Cause

Restoring an author instance with an incompatible bundle (org.apache.aries.spifly.dynamic.bundle) not supported on Java21, misconfigured linkchecker transformer, and missing service users caused startup and content access failures.

Resolution resolution

To fix the issue, follow these steps:

  1. Identify the most recent valid backup of the author instance and restore the author instance using this backup.
  2. After restore, check for incompatible bundles in the error logs, such as org.apache.aries.spifly.dynamic.bundle.
  3. Remove the incompatible bundle from the OSGi console or file system and restart the AEM instance.
  4. If errors related to linkcheckerTransformer appear, update the configuration at /apps/<application>/config/rewriter/versioned-clientlibs.
  5. Remove or correct the linkchecker configuration as needed and restart AEM to apply changes.
  6. Review error logs for missing service user errors. Ensure all required service users are present and properly configured.
  7. If specific content paths are missing (for example, /content/<content-root>/us/en), create a package from the publisher instance for the required path.
  8. Install the package on the author instance.
  9. Validate that the content is now available. Confirm that the login page and authoring UI are accessible.
  10. Verify that all required content and configurations are present.
recommendation-more-help
experience-cloud-kcs-help-kbarticles