Attempting to import a depot into Lifecycle Manager fails with error "Your software depot failed to import. Try importing again or choose another software depot to import"

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

• Attempting to import a custom depot fails with error "Your software depot <depotName> failed to import. Try importing again or choose another software depot to import"
• Imagebuilder main.log on the vCenter: 

• 2026-06-01T18:33:00 [816322][Thread-5 (process_request_worker)]INFO:httpd:Adding a depot with Name: <depotName>
  2026-06-01T18:33:00 [816322][Thread-5 (process_request_worker)]INFO:httpd:Downloading depot <depotName> to /tmp/imagebuilder_led7vfoz
  2026-06-01T18:33:01 [816322][Thread-5 (process_request_worker)]INFO:httpd:Downloaded file d41eb7deb2c25cf775d0fc37e5f84db6a6c41a30.zip in 0.299105 sec, size = 770101421 bytes
  
  2026-06-01T18:33:02 [816322][depot-queue-watcher]INFO:DepotManager:Setting status to Connecting for depot <depotName>
  2026-06-01T18:33:02 [816322][depot-queue-watcher]INFO:Metadata:Reading <tempfile._TemporaryFileWrapper object at 0x7f370c60b3d0>
  2026-06-01T18:33:03 [816322][depot-queue-watcher]INFO:DepotCollection:Error parsing zip:/storage/imagebuilder/depot/d41eb7deb2c25cf775d0fc37e5f84db6a6c41a30.zip?metadata.zip: ('ESXi:9.1.0-0.25370933', 'baseimage', "Two baseimages share the same releaseID: ESXi:9.1.0-0.25370933, but have different attributes: swPlatforms ('[{'version': '9.1', 'locale': '', 'productLineID': 'esxio'}, {'version': '9.1', 'locale': '', 'productLineID': 'embeddedEsx'}]' != '[]')")
  2026-06-01T18:33:03 [816322][depot-queue-watcher]ERROR:DepotManager:Failed to connect to depot <depotName>(/storage/imagebuilder/depot/d41eb7deb2c25cf775d0fc37e5f84db6a6c41a30.zip) because of error: ('ESXi:9.1.0-0.25370933', 'baseimage', "Two baseimages share the same releaseID: ESXi:9.1.0-0.25370933, but have different attributes: swPlatforms ('[{'version': '9.1', 'locale': '', 'productLineID': 'esxio'}, {'version': '9.1', 'locale': '', 'productLineID': 'embeddedEsx'}]' != '[]')")
  

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Environment

VMware vCenter Server 9.x

VMware Cloud Foundation 9.x 

Resolution

1. Reset vLCM Depot by following KB: Reset VMware Lifecycle Manager depot in vCenter Server Appliance 6.5/6.7/7.0/8.0/9.x
2. Remove all previously added software depots from AutoDeploy(ImageBuilder) UI using the remove button.
3. Clear associated imagebuilder and autodeploy cache by running "rm -rf /storage/imagebuilder/" and "rm -rf /storage/autodeploy/cache/" via SSH on the vCenter. 
4. Remove any host from vCenter inventory which has been running the older image and may have been used for host seeding.