About importing & exporting

While it isn’t possible to create an exact duplicate of another blog,  you can export the Posts, Pages and Comments of a WordPress blog and import them into another blog.

When you import the blog content, you will have the opportunity to import the images and attachments, but this may only be possible if the original blog is still active and public (not private).

Things like themes, plugins, header images, custom menus and widgets will not be intact when you import, so you will have to set up each of these things manually in the blog.

• Export posts and pages from your WordPress blog
• Import WordPress blog content into blog.torontomu.ca 

---

Export posts and pages from your WordPress blog

Follow these steps to export your posts, pages, comments from your WordPress blog.

1. Log into your blog at WordPress.com
2. In the dashboard of the blog you are exporting from, go to Tools > Export (in the sidebar)
3. Choose the content you wish to export.
   • If you want to export ALL content from your blog, select “All content“
   • If you want to export select items from your blog, select the appropriate radio button. Each option will have its own set of sub-options – review these and select the ones you need.
4. Click Download Export File, wait for the file to be generated and download the resulting file to your computer.

Import WordPress blog content into blog.torontomu.ca 

Follow these steps if you have exported content from another WordPress blog, and would like to import it into your blog on TMU’s blog.torontomu.ca  system.

You will need to already have a blog on the blog.torontomu.ca system.

1. Log in, and go to the Dashboard of the blog you are importing into (see Dashboard > My Sites for a list of all of your blogs).
2. If you had other users posting to your original blog, you should add them to your new blog before you import the content. This is only possible if they already have accounts on the blog.torontomu.ca network – and you will need their usernames in order to add them.
3. In the Dashboard, go to Tools > Import and click the WordPress option.
4. Browse to locate the WordPress export file on your computer, then click ‘Upload File and Import’
5. In the next step, you need to identify the users who should be attributed to the posts from your original blog. If it’s just you, simply click the dropdown menu for  ‘map to existing’ and select your name. If there were multiple authors, you can choose to attribute their posts to you, or select another user that you have added to the blog.
6. Be sure to check ‘Download and import file attachments’. Remember – the process can only transfer your attachments if the original blog is still active AND public (not private).
7. Click Submit. It may take some time for this to complete, depending on the size of your blog. When it finishes, you will see ‘Have Fun!’.