diff --git a/scm-webapp/src/main/java/sonia/scm/repository/update/XmlRepositoryV1UpdateStep.java b/scm-webapp/src/main/java/sonia/scm/repository/update/XmlRepositoryV1UpdateStep.java
index 9f79287a19..813d42818f 100644
--- a/scm-webapp/src/main/java/sonia/scm/repository/update/XmlRepositoryV1UpdateStep.java
+++ b/scm-webapp/src/main/java/sonia/scm/repository/update/XmlRepositoryV1UpdateStep.java
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ import com.google.inject.Injector;
 import org.slf4j.Logger;
 import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
 import sonia.scm.SCMContextProvider;
+import sonia.scm.migration.UpdateException;
 import sonia.scm.migration.UpdateStep;
 import sonia.scm.plugin.Extension;
 import sonia.scm.repository.Repository;
@@ -22,10 +23,11 @@ import javax.xml.bind.annotation.XmlAccessorType;
 import javax.xml.bind.annotation.XmlElement;
 import javax.xml.bind.annotation.XmlRootElement;
 import java.io.File;
+import java.io.IOException;
+import java.nio.file.Files;
 import java.nio.file.Path;
 import java.util.Arrays;
 import java.util.List;
-import java.util.Map;
 import java.util.Optional;
 import java.util.stream.Collectors;
 
@@ -100,10 +102,23 @@ public class XmlRepositoryV1UpdateStep implements UpdateStep {
       v1Database -> {
         v1Database.repositoryList.repositories.forEach(this::readMigrationStrategy);
         v1Database.repositoryList.repositories.forEach(this::update);
+        backupOldRepositoriesFile();
       }
     );
   }
 
+  private void backupOldRepositoriesFile() {
+    Path configDir = contextProvider.getBaseDirectory().toPath().resolve(StoreConstants.CONFIG_DIRECTORY_NAME);
+    Path oldRepositoriesFile = configDir.resolve("repositories.xml");
+    Path backupFile = configDir.resolve("repositories.xml.v1.backup");
+    LOG.info("moving old repositories database files to backup file {}", backupFile);
+    try {
+      Files.move(oldRepositoriesFile, backupFile);
+    } catch (IOException e) {
+      throw new UpdateException("could not backup old repository database file", e);
+    }
+  }
+
   private void update(V1Repository v1Repository) {
     Path destination = handleDataDirectory(v1Repository);
     Repository repository = new Repository(
diff --git a/scm-webapp/src/test/java/sonia/scm/repository/update/XmlRepositoryV1UpdateStepTest.java b/scm-webapp/src/test/java/sonia/scm/repository/update/XmlRepositoryV1UpdateStepTest.java
index 8c0f4bb103..773d7bd447 100644
--- a/scm-webapp/src/test/java/sonia/scm/repository/update/XmlRepositoryV1UpdateStepTest.java
+++ b/scm-webapp/src/test/java/sonia/scm/repository/update/XmlRepositoryV1UpdateStepTest.java
@@ -9,7 +9,6 @@ import org.junit.jupiter.api.extension.ExtendWith;
 import org.junitpioneer.jupiter.TempDirectory;
 import org.mockito.ArgumentCaptor;
 import org.mockito.Captor;
-import org.mockito.InjectMocks;
 import org.mockito.Mock;
 import org.mockito.junit.jupiter.MockitoExtension;
 import sonia.scm.SCMContextProvider;
@@ -190,10 +189,18 @@ class XmlRepositoryV1UpdateStepTest {
     }
 
     @Test
-    void shouldFailForMissingMigrationStrategy() throws JAXBException {
+    void shouldFailForMissingMigrationStrategy() {
       lenient().when(migrationStrategyDao.get("c1597b4f-a9f0-49f7-ad1f-37d3aae1c55f")).thenReturn(empty());
       assertThrows(IllegalStateException.class, () -> updateStep.doUpdate());
     }
+
+    @Test
+    void shouldBackupOldRepositoryDatabaseFile(@TempDirectory.TempDir Path tempDir) throws JAXBException {
+      updateStep.doUpdate();
+
+      assertThat(tempDir.resolve("config").resolve("repositories.xml")).doesNotExist();
+      assertThat(tempDir.resolve("config").resolve("repositories.xml.v1.backup")).exists();
+    }
   }
 
   @Test
@@ -202,12 +209,27 @@ class XmlRepositoryV1UpdateStepTest {
   }
 
   @Test
-  void shouldNotFailIfFormerV1DatabaseExists(@TempDirectory.TempDir Path tempDir) throws JAXBException, IOException {
+  void shouldNotFailIfFormerV2DatabaseExists(@TempDirectory.TempDir Path tempDir) throws JAXBException, IOException {
+    createFormerV2RepositoriesFile(tempDir);
+
+    updateStep.doUpdate();
+  }
+
+  @Test
+  void shouldNotBackupFormerV2DatabaseFile(@TempDirectory.TempDir Path tempDir) throws JAXBException, IOException {
+    createFormerV2RepositoriesFile(tempDir);
+
+    updateStep.doUpdate();
+
+    assertThat(tempDir.resolve("config").resolve("repositories.xml")).exists();
+    assertThat(tempDir.resolve("config").resolve("repositories.xml.v1.backup")).doesNotExist();
+  }
+
+  private void createFormerV2RepositoriesFile(@TempDirectory.TempDir Path tempDir) throws IOException {
     URL url = Resources.getResource("sonia/scm/repository/update/formerV2RepositoryFile.xml");
     Path configDir = tempDir.resolve("config");
     Files.createDirectories(configDir);
     Files.copy(url.openStream(), configDir.resolve("repositories.xml"));
-    updateStep.doUpdate();
   }
 
   private Optional<Repository> findByNamespace(String namespace) {