Question: Just by a mistake I had deleted a spring project in STS.To use it back I borrowed the same project from my friend in zip format but when I tried to import it says

*Some projects cannot be imported because they already exist in the workspace*

Following is the way I tried to import

file->import->general->existing projects into worspace->select archive file

and after browse when I select the zip project 

*Some projects cannot be imported because they already exist in the workspace*

and the finish button and next button are in disabled state.Please help me

Answer: 
The workspace in STS/Eclipse is not automatically the same as the file structure that you have on disc in your workspace directory. You can have projects in this workspace folder or somewhere else on disc.

To get them into your project explorer (and access them from inside STS/Eclipse), you need to import them (Import Existing Projects into Workspace). Then you can select the folder where those projects are located in. In case you have those projects already in your workspace folder on disc, you can choose the workspace folder as root folder in the wizard. It will show all the projects that exist on disc in that folder and grey those out that are already imported/referenced in your workspace in Eclipse.
When you launch Spring Tools Suite, it will ask you to **Select directory as workspace** as below:

[![spring tools suite launcher](https://i.stack.imgur.com/RAdzR.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/RAdzR.png)

If the directory you selected here (i.e., workspace directory) is the same as the directory where the project that you are going to import resides, then you will get **Some projects cannot be imported because they already exist in the workspace**.

Therefore, to solve the issue, 

* Close Spring Tool Suite
* Create a new directory
* Launch Spring Tool Suite again
* And, select that as your workspace
* Launch the application and you would be able to import as you mentioned in your question

It solved my problem.
Hope it helps..

Happy Coding!!