Most people don’t realize that you don’t need to use MYSQL or PHPmyadmin in order to do a core backup of wordpress. Sure it doesn’t back up everything, but its quick and a smaller file size than a SQL backup.

What is wordpress Import / Export?

The export feature saves your wordpress data as a XML file. You can then import this file easily to another blog that is 2.1 or higher or to wordpress.com blog. It is a more convenient way to backup your wordpress data, with unique features not available in the old database backup plugin. You don’t have to worry about using MySQL or PHPmyadmin to transfer files. The original writers to the database backup plugin were a bit disgruntled that there plugin is no longer bundled with new releases, but the project and development support for that plugin continues.

Difference between Import/Export and database plugin:

There is some slight advantages and disadvantages to each way you want to backup. The Export saves a much smaller file size than the old database plugin, as it efficiently reuses some internal wordpress code. When importing it to another existing blog, you can create a username and all the posts will be under that name. This means none of the current blog posts or other data will be overwritten(if you are moving it to an existing blog instead of a fresh copy). It allows you to merge two blogs data together nicely, something you couldn’t do on standard backups. I tested it myself and even if there are the same categories, it will just make the categories twice in those cases. Importing your files is much easier then worrying about PHPmyadmin or mysql, when using the files from the database plugin.

One disadvantage to the import/export feature is while it does save comments, posts, categories, it does not save your blogroll. It also won’t save your settings or data some of your wordpress plugins might have stored(such as certain spam plugins). Also there seems to be people mentioning data size limits on export, but I could not see that anywhere when I did the exporting(twice). Another feature the original wordpress database plugin has that the import/export feature doesn’t, is automatic backup by server or email.

How to Import Export in Wordpress:

Go into your wordpress 2.1 or higher dashboard. Click on the manage tab then go to the export tab. Leave the scroll bar on “All” and click submit. Save the file. Then go to the wp-content folder of the blog you want to move your file to and change the permissions to writeable. That will allow wordpress to import the file. Then go to the import tab and upload the file. You then have the option to create a username, which is what you should do. The default password is “changeme” which obviously should be changed if you are moving it permanently. If you are doing this for testing purposes only, you can delete your imported data by going to the users tab and then checking the imported username and deleting all posts.