Exporting and then importing WordPress content
NB!!!
The official WordPress Importer found through the tools section does not correctly add media. It gives an error message and adds links to media that are located in the exported site.
Two new plugins to test out:
Paul Biron has been working on the following two plugins:
A new WordPress exporter: github.com/pbiron/wordpress-exporter-v2 (forked from the one made by Human Made.) and a new WordPress importer: github.com/pbiron/wordpress-importer-v2 There are still a few bugs to work out. The project is on a stand still and I am not sure what will happen with it.
You could instead use one of the many backup/clone plugins available.
My choice of clone/backup site plugin is Duplicator: See my Duplicator video tutorial.
All in One WP Migration is an easy backup plugin to use:
wordpress.org/plugins/all-in-one-wp-migration
Another is: wordpress.org/plugins/backupwordpress
Or perhaps check out: https://www.wpallimport.com
There are a few plugins to export and import WordPress content. The official one is the
WordPress Importer plugin which imports posts, pages, comments, custom fields, categories, tags and more from a WordPress export file.
How well does it work?
Export
First one has to export from a site. The default export will contain All content or Posts or Pages. It will not export users so before importing be sure to add the needed users.
Import
Posts, comments, pages and media attachments were copied over from the old site in an xml file to the new site. Everything looked to be in place.
NB!
Other plugin options:
https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-advanced-importer/
https://wordpress.org/plugins/widget-importer-exporter/
https://wordpress.org/plugins/widget-settings-importexport/
https://wordpress.org/plugins/options-importer/
The WordPress Importer is being redeveloped:
https://make.wordpress.org/core/2015/11/18/wordpress-importer-redux/
https://github.com/humanmade/WordPress-Importer
Export plugins:
https://wordpress.org/plugins/export-plus/
https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-exporter/
Download your media library:
https://wordpress.org/plugins/downml/
Check out an earlier article with a video I did on the WordPress Importer plugin.
Now what about moving comments from posts to another post?
There are some specific plugins for this:
https://wordpress.org/plugins/tako-movable-comments
The plugin is real easy to use and works well.
Not totally sold on the built-in WordPress import/export. The biggest drawback I’ve seen is that it doesn’t pull files in the media library that aren’t currently being used (displayed) on the site. I understand the rationale, but it should be an option and not a default.
Many people, including my clients, have images and files in the media library that they need and use, even if they don’t happen to be live when you’re doing the export.