 <p>Serialisation in java is not meant as long term persistence or transport format - it is too fragile for this. With the slightest difference in class bytecode and JVM, your data is not readable anymore. Use XML or JSON data-binding for your task (<a href="http://x-stream.github.io/" rel="nofollow">XStream</a> is fast and easy to use, and there are a ton of alternatives)</p>