Why am I getting the error on svn client "XML parse error at line 1 no element found" when accessing VisualSVN Server?

Question

You may get the following error when using incorrect URL to access VisualSVN Server repository with a Subversion client, e.g. TortoiseSVN:

XML parse error at line 1 no element found

What is the cause and how to get rid of the error?

Answer 1

Read the article KB102: Subversion client errors caused by inappropriate repository URL. Most likely, you get this error because the URL to the repositories is not correct.

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Unlike web browsers, Subversion clients are unable to access the content of the whole repositories list. In other words, you are unable to access e.g. https://svn.example.com/svn/ URL using Subversion clients such as TortoiseSVN or a command-line client.

You must specify the URL to a repository (or it's subfolder or item) explicitly.

The correct URL should look like: https://<servername>/svn/<repository-name>/

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Update 05/07/2013:

Repository Browser in TortoiseSVN 1.8 can list repositories offered by SVNListParentPath. See TortoiseSVN 1.8 Release Notes.