February 23, 2010 – This post was published 2 years prior to the entries appearing in the new support documentation we now have at wordpress.com. It has been edited to update the content, however, before undertaking the process of moving blog contents it’s recommended that you read the support documentation that applies including the export, import, and Links (Blogroll) import and export entries.
Exporting blog contents
There is an import and export function for this purpose in your dashboard
-> Dashboard -> Manage -> Export -> WordPress
(1) You can export the contents of one blog (posts, pages, comments, custom fields, categories, and tags) in the form of an xml file to your desktop and, then you can import the xml file into the another blog site.
When you click the button WordPress will create an XML file for you to save to your computer. This format, which we call WordPress eXtended RSS or WXR, will contain your posts, comments, custom fields, and categories. Once you’ve saved the download file, you can use the Import function on another WordPress blog to import it.
Exporting Links
(2) Update: “There are two options when importing links. You can import links from an existing blog, or you can import links from a file you have saved to your computer.” http://en.support.wordpress.com/blogroll/import-export-links/
Import from a file saved to your own computer - The blogroll links must be separately exported and re-categorized. That means you will have to re-assign them to each link once they are moved but it’s better than copying and pasting those links yet again.
Blogroll i.e. Links note 1: The OPML format doesn’t support categories even though they’ll be there when you do the export. Assign the major category for them when you go to import them as you’re going to have to reassign them afterwards anyway.
Blogroll i.e. Links note 2: If you had links, you can export them out at http://mydomain.com/wp-links-opml.php (You must change “my domain” to your own url, of course.) Open that exported blogroll (links) xml file in a plain text editor like NotePad and save as a *.txt file. The blogroll (links) xml file needs to be saved as a *.txt doc in a plain text editor like Notepad. This is because if you were to save it as a text rich text document using for example Microsoft Wordpad or Word (horrors!) those programs would add in all kinds of garbage like fonts and unusual html formatting code that mess will it up for what we’re doing here.
Importing
There is an import and export function for this purpose in your dashboard
-> Dashboard -> Manage -> Import -> WordPress
Howdy! Upload your WordPress eXtended RSS (WXR) file and we’ll import the posts, comments, custom fields, and categories into this blog.
Choose a WordPress WXR file to upload, then click Upload file and import.
Choose a file from your computer: (Maximum size: 3m)
Upload File and import.
Blogroll i.e. Links Import – Be sure you are using a plain text editor and then import the *.txt file you saved into your other blog at Dashboard -> Blogroll -> Import Links.
Lisa Lubin
July 11, 2008
I just signed up with BLueHost to host my own wp.org site. My Exported (from my wp.com blog) XML file is 3+ MB and it says the imported file to WP.org can’t be larger than 2MB. Therefore when i try to import it i get this message:
The uploaded file exceeds the upload_max_filesize directive in php.ini
I’ve seen some people suggest to break the file into pieces or change the php.ini file, but i don’t know how to do this.
Can someone please help me? What do i do to get all my posts, etc over to new self-hosted blog.
Thanks!!
worldtour.wordpress.com
worldtour.com
timethief
July 12, 2008
Hi Lisa,
I have left a comment on your blog regarding this. Basically you must break the file into smaller chunks. I also suggested that you contact staff as they might help you do that support@wordpress.com.
Best wishes for a happy outcome.
Mrs.B
July 30, 2008
I keep getting the following error message…
The XML page cannot be displayed
Cannot view XML input using XSL style sheet. Please correct the error and then click the Refresh button, or try again later.
——————————————————————————–
The operation completed successfully. Error processing resource ‘file:///C:/Documents and Settings/Swaye/Desktop/wordpress….
—————–^
Can anyone out there in blog-land help me?
timethief
July 30, 2008
Mrs.B
If you have a free hosted wordpress.com blog then contact staff by email to support[at]wordpress[dot]com
If you are self hosting a wordpress.org template then you will have to post to http://wordpress.org/support
NewWrldYankee
August 8, 2008
I did what this said, but unfortunately, when i am on my site, and click dashboard, it goes to my wordpress.com dashboard, not my dashboard from my *(wordpress.org) website. Why is that?
Richard
August 8, 2008
NewWrldYankee, WordPress.com and self-hosted blogs using the software from WordPress.org use different logins. They are not connected. You have to log into your self-hosted blog separately.
Randomability
September 2, 2008
THANK YOU!!!!!! I was so happy not to have to cut/paste my blogroll.
timethief
September 2, 2008
You are welcome. Best wishes for happy blogging. :)
testmechin
January 7, 2009
the xml size is larger than 2 mb ..can u help
v2tricks.blogspot.com is the site to be moved to v2tricks.net
timethief
January 7, 2009
No I cannot help. If the file is too large then it must be split. Perhaps contacting Staff is the way to go.
deepercolors
February 23, 2010
I did an export on my wordpress.com. Checked everything there was to check.
When I imported to my new one – also wordpress.com – I lost theme, my custom header, my widget arrangements and all my links!
It did do all the pages OK, but it is still a lot! of work to remake the new blog.
Need to work on your export/import process!
timethief
February 23, 2010
Let me be clear about this I do not work for wordpress.com. Therefore, I do not need to work on my export/import process because I do not have one.
You say :
You lost nothing. Let me explain why that’s so.
(1) All themes can be accessed and activated in the same spot on your new blog wordpress.com as blog that they can be accessed and activated on your other wordpress.com blog > Appearance > Themes. All you had to do was to select the same theme in the new blog as the old one and activate it.
(2) Your custom header on the old theme is an image and you uploaded that image into the custom header uploader old blog. All you had to do was upload the same image it into the custom header uploader in the new blog.
(3) Every theme has a default widget display and when you go here > Appearance > Widgets and move any widgets at all your choices over-ride the default display. As your new blog had the same theme as the old one this would be easily accomplished by opening a second tab on your computer so you could view both and choose to create the same widget arrangement on the new blog. Then you could have opened the text widgets on both blogs and copied and pasted the text widget contents from the old blog to the new one.
(4) You did not lose your links. I suppose you didn’t you click through the links I supplied above and read what you found in the support documentation. See (2) of my post above. The import is done in two separate files like I said above. The BlogRoll (links) are separately exported and imported.
This is what the Export page clearly states:
The words theme, custom header images, widget arrangements and links do not appear there, because they are not contained in the file.
Not only that but on the Import page it clearly states:
Import posts, pages, comments, custom fields, categories, and tags from a WordPress export file.
(5) I’m sorry to say that it seems you made this very simple process into a difficult lengthy one simply, because you did not click through the links I provided and read the support documentation. That’s really too bad.
deepercolors
February 23, 2010
I apologize. I thought I was talking to WordPress. The ones responsible for the export/import process. Those comments were for them.
But even so, your rude retort is uncalled for. And also does not work. Is not simple!
Don’t worry I won’t ever ask a question here again. I have enough problems without rude remarks and put downs.
timethief
February 23, 2010
@deepercolors
I was not rude but you were in your original comment. That’s why you said you apologized to me in this comment.
The wordpress.com export and import functions work well. I know that because I have used them many times and have compared them to what’s available on other blogging platforms like Blogger (blogspot).
The fact remains that you did not read the support documentation, and the consequence of not doing so created a bad experience for you. That’s too bad.
Michael Kirschner
May 3, 2010
He did read the support documentation and it still did not work for him
timethief
May 4, 2010
?