Migrating Your WordPress Site

Overview

Middlebury students lose access to their accounts six months after graduation. During those six months, they would ideally move all of their website content over to a self-hosted server, or WordPress.com, if they want to keep it. If they do lose access, they can create a guest account, and be added back as admins of their sites in order to export it or save their desired content. However, we can’t guarantee that they will always have access, even as a guest user, because sometime after graduation, sites may be deleted.

Export your content

  1. Log into the dashboard of your site and go to Tools > Export.
  2. Choose All Content, Download Export File.
  3. This will give you a file with the extension .xml which you can save somewhere on your computer that is convenient.

This export contains the text content for your posts and pages as well as any comments. It does not contain media, plugins, or themes.

Import your content

Create a new WordPress site elsewhere, for example at wordpress.com or Reclaim Hosting.

  1. Log into the dashboard of your new WordPress site and go to Tools > Import.
  2. Choose WordPress from the list.
  3. Click the Choose File button and choose the .xml file you downloaded in the first portion of this tutorial.
  4. Click Upload File and Import.
  5. Choose Download Attachments (this imports your media from the original site)
  6. Choose how to attribute authors.

Now all your content will be in your new site, ready to edit. You will have to re-select a theme and activate any required plugins. Depending on your theme, you may have to re-customize elements that did not transfer.

Need help?

For technical support for Migrating Your WordPress Site, search the ITS Knowledge Base or submit a help ticket here.

For pedagogical support for Migrating Your WordPress Site, schedule a consultation with a DLINQ team member.