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Import from WordPress

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Moving from WordPress? Import copies your posts into DonkeyCMS from WordPress's own export file. No WordPress plugin is needed. Open Import in the menu on the left. Only a Master account sees this page.

The Import page: a drop area for the WordPress export file, the Upload & Preview button and the four-step How it works guide.12
  1. Drop your WordPress export file here.
  2. Shows a summary first. Nothing is imported yet.

1. Export from WordPress

In WordPress, open Tools → Export, choose All content and click Download Export File. You get one .xml file.

2. Upload and check the summary

Drag the file onto the Import page, or choose it, and press Upload & Preview. Nothing is imported yet. You see a summary first:

  • how many posts there are, and how many are Published, Scheduled, Draft and Pending Review
  • how many Categories, Tags and Images referenced
  • posts that already exist here (same address). Importing them again makes a second copy at a different address.
  • posts built with a page-builder plugin (Elementor, Divi, WPBakery, Beaver Builder). Their text may be incomplete; check them after the import.

3. Start the import

Press Start Import. When it finishes you see how many posts were imported, and how many images were downloaded or failed.

Keep your WordPress site online until the import is done: the images are copied from it during the import.

What comes across

  • Posts, with their text, publish date and status. WordPress pages arrive as posts too.
  • One category per post (the first one, if a post had several) and all its tags
  • The featured image and the images inside the text, added to your Media Library
  • SEO titles, meta descriptions and "noindex" from Yoast, Rank Math or All in One SEO
  • The author, when a DonkeyCMS account has the same username. Otherwise the post is yours.

What does not come across

  • Comments
  • Trashed posts. Private posts arrive as Draft.
  • Menus, widgets, plugins and your theme
  • Your old addresses. A WordPress address such as yoursite.com/2024/05/my-post/ does not forward to the new one by itself. If people or search engines link to your old posts, ask your host or developer to set up redirects from the old addresses to the new ones.

Tip: Import each export file once. If something went wrong, delete the imported posts first, then import again.

If the upload is refused with ER401, see Error codes.

Still stuck? Write to us — we read every message.