XMIND File Documentation

Summary

An .xmind file is an XMind Workbook, a mind map created by the XMind app. It is not an image: it is a ZIP package holding the map's nodes as content.json in modern XMind, or content.xml in older versions, with MIME type application/vnd.xmind.workbook. The native app is XMind, free for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS. To share a map with someone who does not have XMind, export it to PDF or PNG. You can also rename it to .zip to inspect the contents.

Technical details

FeatureValue
Full nameXMind Workbook (mind map)
File extension.xmind
MIME typeapplication/vnd.xmind.workbook
Format typeZIP package containing a JSON (modern) or XML (legacy) map
DeveloperXMind Ltd.
Introduced2007 (XMind 3, ZIP+XML)
Modern layoutXMind Zen / 2020+ store the map as content.json
CategoryDocument / mind map (not an image)
Container / base formatZIP
Magic number50 4B 03 04 (“PK”, ZIP local file header)
Map documentcontent.json (modern) or content.xml (XMind 3/8)
Manifestmanifest.json lists the package parts
Metadatametadata.json / meta.xml
PreviewThumbnails/thumbnail.png
Attachmentsresources/ folder (optional)
Open standardPartial — documented on XMind's GitHub wiki
Opens inXMind (all platforms); 7-Zip / online viewers to inspect
Convert to.pdf, .png, .svg, .docx, .opml (export from app)
Related extensions.zip, .opml, .mm, .itmz, .mmap
Specificationgithub.com/xmindltd/xmind/wiki/XMindFileFormat
File signature (magic bytes)
50 4B 03 04

Offset 0, ASCII PK. An .xmind file is an ordinary ZIP archive, so it starts with the standard ZIP local-file-header signature: rename it to .zip and any archive tool opens it. Inside, modern XMind (Zen / 2020+) stores the map as content.json; XMind 3 through 8 stored it as content.xml. Alongside the map sit a manifest.json, a metadata file, a Thumbnails/thumbnail.png preview, and an optional resources/ folder of attachments. Nothing distinguishes an .xmind from any other ZIP at the byte level; the map document names inside identify it.

What is an XMIND file?

XMIND is the native document format of XMind, a cross-platform mind-mapping application from XMind Ltd. first released in 2007. A mind map is a branching diagram of ideas: a central topic, with subtopics radiating out as a tree. An .xmind file stores that structure, the topics and subtopics, their text, notes, labels, the relationship lines between branches, the styling, and any embedded images. It is a structured document, not a flat picture, which is the single most common misconception about the format.

Technically the file is a ZIP archive. Rename any .xmind to .zip and it opens in any archive tool. What lives inside changed over the format's life: XMind 3 through XMind 8 stored the map as an XML document, and XMind Zen (2017) onward stores it as JSON. Both eras are still just ZIP packages, and current XMind reads both. The site category worth correcting is “image”: XMIND is a document, and its image exports (PNG, JPG) are raster, produced on export rather than stored in the file.

The ZIP package: parts of an XMIND file

Because an .xmind is a ZIP, its internals are a set of named members you can list without XMind at all. A modern (Zen / 2020+) workbook looks like this:

map.xmind  (ZIP archive)
 ├─ content.json            the map: topics, relationships, styles (JSON)
 ├─ metadata.json           document metadata, creator, version
 ├─ manifest.json           lists every part in the package
 ├─ Thumbnails/thumbnail.png a low-res preview image of the map
 └─ resources/              embedded images and attachments (optional)

A legacy (XMind 3/8) workbook is the same idea with XML: the map is content.xml, the metadata is meta.xml, and the manifest is META-INF/manifest.xml. The presence of content.json versus content.xml is the quickest way to tell which era a file came from. The manifest enumerates the parts so the app knows what belongs to the package, and the thumbnail lets file browsers and viewers show a preview without parsing the whole map.

Inside content.json: topics and relationships

The heart of the file is the map document. In modern XMind, content.json is a JSON array of sheets, and each sheet has a root topic with a nested children structure that mirrors the visual tree. Every topic carries a stable id, its title text, and optional attached notes, labels, markers, and a style reference.

[
  {
    "id": "sheet-1",
    "rootTopic": {
      "id": "root",
      "title": "Project plan",
      "children": {
        "attached": [
          { "id": "t1", "title": "Research",
            "children": { "attached": [ { "id":"t2", "title":"Survey" } ] } },
          { "id": "t3", "title": "Design" }
        ]
      }
    },
    "relationships": [ { "end1Id": "t1", "end2Id": "t3" } ]
  }
]

Subtopics live under children.attached, which is what produces the branch hierarchy. Cross-links that jump between branches, the curved association arrows in a map, are stored separately in a relationships array that references two topic ids rather than being nested in the tree. Styling (colours, shapes, line types) is referenced by id and resolved against a style table, so the structural JSON stays about content while appearance is kept separate. The legacy content.xml encodes the same model with <topic> elements and <relationship> elements instead of JSON objects.

Opening an XMIND file without the app

The XMind app is the only program that fully reads and edits the format, and it is free to download for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS (a paid Pro tier adds extras such as Gantt view and some export formats). Double-clicking an .xmind opens it there for viewing and editing.

If you have the file but not the app, you have two honest options. For viewing, a web-based XMind viewer displays the map read-only in a browser without installing anything. For a raw peek, rename the file to .zip (or open it in 7-Zip) and look at the extracted Thumbnails/thumbnail.png, which shows the map at low resolution, or read content.json to pull out the topic text. There is no full third-party editor, so editing means the XMind app.

Exporting: turning a map into a shareable file

Because the map is locked inside a proprietary ZIP, sharing with people who do not use XMind means exporting from the app to a universal format. The two most common targets are a fixed document and a flat image.

ExportWhat you get
PDFFixed, printable document of the map
PNG / JPGRaster image to drop into slides or docs
SVGScalable vector image, crisp at any size
DOCXWord outline: topics become headings and bullets
OPML / MarkdownPortable text outline other outliners can import

PDF and PNG are for sharing the visual map. For moving the structure into another tool, OPML or Markdown is the right route: both are plain-text outlines that other mind-map apps and outliners import, including the iThoughts .itmz format. Exporting a map to a spreadsheet is a poor fit, because a hierarchy flattened into a grid becomes an awkward indented list; the export menu offers it, but OPML or PDF is almost always the better choice.

Legacy XML versus modern JSON files

The 2017 switch from content.xml to content.json occasionally trips people up. Current XMind imports both, so an old file should open, but two failure modes recur. A partially downloaded or corrupted ZIP will not open at all, since the archive itself is broken; re-downloading usually fixes it. And a file created in a much newer build may use map features an older XMind version does not understand. If a map refuses to open, extracting the ZIP and confirming that content.json or content.xml is present and non-empty is a good first diagnostic before assuming the app is at fault.

References