Migrating existing users to a new website can be a challenge, especially with a large user base. When you export and import WordPress users, you want to ensure you lose none of that data. Whether you combine multiple WordPress sites into one or move your existing site to a new domain, you have to take care—this is where a dedicated plugin can assist you.
In this article, we’ll guide you through the steps to successfully migrate users between WordPress sites without hassle or downtime.
Choosing the Best Plugin to Export and Import WordPress Users
Even though WordPress comes with a built-in export and import tool, it has a few limitations and doesn’t offer much flexibility. For a WordPress website that uses custom user fields (such as a membership or course website), the importer isn’t going to cut it.
This is where a third-party plugin can be vital. There are many WordPress import plugin options to choose from, but the WP All Import Export Suite stands out.
The WP All Export plugin gives you a way to export all kinds of WordPress data, including users. When combined with its sister plugin—WP All Import—you can easily import users and other WordPress data into any site.
Because the tools come from the same developer, they have seamless integration. The export and import processes are similar, which means you only have to learn the process once. In addition, the entire process offers multiple steps, and this is straightforward even for beginners to follow.
Both plugins are powerful and include typical and advanced functionality:
- A user-friendly drag-and-drop interface to select export fields and map import fields.
- Support for all user data, including custom fields added by WooCommerce or membership plugins.
- Advanced filtering to select exactly which users to export and import.
- Scheduling to automatically export and import users between sites.
The WP All Import Export Suite not only simplifies the migration process but also gives you full control over the data during it. Let’s go from here to learn how to use them to migrate users from site to site.
How to Export WordPress Users From Source Site (In 3 Steps)
To begin the export process, log in to the WordPress dashboard of your source site and install and activate the WP All Export plugin along with the User Export add-on.
The latter is an extension for WP All Export that lets you export all user-specific fields, including custom fields. For example, if you have a membership website, the User Export add-on will let you export fields such as membership level, subscription status, and other fields the membership plugin adds relating to users.
Regardless, with both plugins active on your site, you can begin the export export process.
1. Start a New Export and Filter User Data
Begin by navigating to All Export > New Export on your source site and select Users as the export type. This will display the total number of user records available for export.
Next, expand the Add Filtering Options panel near the bottom of the screen to access WP All Export’s powerful filtering options.
Each export filter rule consists of three components: an Element, Rule, and Value. For the first two options, select your choice from the drop-down menu. In the final field, enter the value by which you want to filter your users.
For example, if you only want to export users with a specific user role, you can easily add the following filter:
- User Role for the Element.
- Equals for the Rule.
- Editor as the Value.
From here, click the Add Rule button to apply your filter. This will select all users with the Editor user role.
WP All Export also includes advanced filtering that lets you combine and nest multiple filter rules. You can combine multiple rules using AND and OR logic and use the drag-and-drop interface to nest the filters.
Once done, you have a choice to make. If this is all you need, you can click the Migrate button and skip to the last step. If you need more control over your export file, the Customize Export File button will give you that scope.
2. Select User Fields and Choose Your File Format
WP All Export features a drag-and-drop interface that lets you easily select which user fields to include in your export file. If you want to include all user fields, click the Add All button below the selection area.
To select specific user fields, use the drag-and-drop interface to add fields from the Available Data section on the right to the selection area on the left.
After you’ve added all the fields that you want to migrate, you can use the same interface to rearrange fields in the export file.
Additionally, WP All Export enables you to choose the file format you want to export users in. On the same page, expand the Export Type panel and choose between spreadsheet and feed formats.
The spreadsheet formats include CSV, Excel XLS, and Excel XLSX, while the feed options let you choose between Simple and Custom XML.
Once you’ve selected your preferred file format, the Continue button at the bottom of the screen lets you set some other options relating to your export.
3. Configure Automatic Export of User Data (Optional)
The Export Settings page enables you to configure advanced options, including automatic scheduling. Discussing what each checkbox does is beyond the scope of this post, but the WP All Export documentation runs through them in detai.
The Scheduling Options lets you create automatic exports of user data. From here, you can import the data to another website without the need for manual work.
To set up automatic export, expand the Scheduling Options panel. You can either select Automatic Scheduling, an optional plug-and-play premium service by WP All Export, or use Manual Scheduling. Note that the latter requires you to configure cron jobs on your server.
For this tutorial, we’ll select Automatic Scheduling. Next, select the specific days of the week or month you want to run this export, then set the specific time and timezone. For example, we’ve set the export to run automatically every Tuesday at 2:00 AM Chicago time.
Clicking the Save and Run Export button move you on to retrieving your export file. WP All Export will give you two options to download your user data:
Here, click on the Bundle option to download the user data along with an import template that helps the WP All Import plugin get its process correct with regard to mapping data to relevant fields. At this point, you can look to the import process.
A 5 Step Process to Import WordPress Users to Your Destination Site
After exporting the user data from our source site using the WP All Export plugin, we’re now ready to work on the second half of our migration process. So far, we’ve installed the necessary plugins on the source website, filtered our user data, selected the fields to export, and downloaded the user data file.
The next step is to import this data into our new WordPress site. We’ll use WP All Import, the sister plugin to WP All Export, to make this process as smooth as possible. This will help us accurately transfer all user information, including custom fields and user roles.
Much like WP All Export, you will need to install the premium versions of the core WP All Import plugin and the Import User Add-On Pro.
1. Start a New User Import and Upload the Bundle File
To begin, navigate to All Import › New Import in the WordPress main menu.
WP All Import provides three ways to import the user data file: you can either upload the file, download it from a URL, or use an existing file on your server.
Since we have the user data file on our local computer, select the Upload a file option and choose your Bundle file from the export process. WP All Import will automatically detect that it is user data and will select it in the Import type drop-down menu. When you finish, click the button to Continue to Step 2.
2. Review the Import File
The Review Import File page lets you check if the import process for the user data file is valid, and that all the records are intact.
WP All Import will display the total user count at the top, and you can use the gray arrows to navigate between each individual record.
After you’ve verified the user list, you can apply filters to import only a subset of the data. This works in a similar way to the filters in WP All Export:
After you check the data, you can click the button at the bottom of the screen to Continue to Step 3.
3. Map the User Data to Their Target Fields
WP All Import features a drag-and-drop interface that simplifies mapping the fields in your import file to their corresponding WordPress user fields. This is an automatic process once you import the Bundle file.
If the plugin doesn’t catch some of your data, you can drag the user element from the Available Data sidebar to the appropriate field on the left of the screen.
The Continue to Step 4 button should be the last step on this page once you complete the mapping process.
4. Configure the Import Settings
The Import Settings page will now appear. Here, your most important task is to select the unique identifier, which helps WP All Import differentiate between different users.
The plugin should select the identifier for you. If not, you can click the Auto-detect option, or even enter a manual value.
You’ll find more settings on the page, such as blocking email notifications to imported users during the process, scheduling, and speed optimization.
The scheduling option will only work if you select the Download from URL or Use Existing File option on the New Import page. You can combine this with the automatic scheduling in WP All Export to automatically sync new user data between source and destination sites.
The configuration steps are similar to the export process. You can select the Automatic Scheduling options, then select the frequency of the import along with the exact time and timezone. There’s much more to discover about these options too.
For instance, the advanced speed optimization settings let you specify the number of records to import in each batch and the maximum number of records to include in each file. This is particularly beneficial when you’re dealing with a large number of users or if your server has limited resources.
While larger batches may complete faster, they can be more prone to errors. If your import fails, you can come back to this step and try reducing the batch size to improve the success rate.
After configuring these settings, click Continue to move to the last step.
5. Run and Verify the Import
The Confirm and Run page enables you to confirm the selected settings before running the import. It provides you with an Import Summary, which is a checklist of what will happen during the import process.
If you spot any mistakes, you can always go back to the previous steps and correct any issues. Once you’re happy, click the Confirm and Run Import button.
WP All Import will run the import and show you a success confirmation screen indicating that the process was successful. It will give you a summary of the import process that includes the number of user imports, and whether any there were any amendments or changes to existing users.
To verify the import, simply navigate to Users > All Users in the WordPress dashboard and look for the newly imported users in the list.
On the whole, the process to export and import WordPress users shouldn’t take more than a few minutes. What’s more, you can control the entire job from start to finish.
It Can Be Simple to Export and Import WordPress Users From One Site to Another
Migrating users between WordPress sites can be a complicated process, especially when you have a custom WordPress site like a membership site or WooCommerce store.
To export and import WordPress users, you need the right plugin or two. The WP All Import Export Suite makes this transition smooth and hassle-free. With its user-friendly interface and stellar functionality, it streamlines the entire process. Also, you can feel safe that none of this critical data will go missing.
What challenges do you face when you need to export and import WordPress users? Share your experiences in the comments section below!
