Support » Fixing WordPress » Exporting/Importing Media

  • My client operated two WordPress.org sites, Site A as her website and Site B as her blog. She would like them merged into one. I exported her post data from Site B and imported it into Site A. The text came through nicely, however the media did not. Not only did many of the images not come through, but they also are still carrying the html reference to Site B’s library. We’re talking 9 years of media here, meaning hundreds/thousands of images.

    My questions:
    Can I copy/paste her uploads in ftp? I did some, but they’re not showing in her media library.
    Were her html reference supposed to change during the import? If not, is there any easy way to do so?

    The page I need help with: [log in to see the link]

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)
  • Howdy @adunate,

    I’m assuming that when you did the import, you checked the box to download the media on import, right?

    For those pages/posts where the images didn’t come over, do the missing images show in the media library at all (maybe blank)?

    When I look at the missing images in the code, I’m seeing two relative paths:

    http://domain.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/dairy-queen-sp-1994-1024×731.gif
    http://domain.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/dairy-queen-sp-1994-1024×731.gif

    How I’d proceed depends a bit on the state of your existing media library. If all of the missing images are in the library but not showing, it’s likely that their path is incorrect or that the image didn’t physically download.

    If that’s the case, you should be able to download the uploads files via FTP and copy them to the appropriate directory.

    I’m also quite fond of the Better Search Replace plugin which will allow you to search and replace URLs to correct them.

    For example, if you have a missing image with a url like:

    http://domain.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/image-name.gif

    You could use that plugin to find the above URL and replace with the correct URL:

    http://domain.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/image-name.gif

    If your images don’t appear in the library at all, you’ll want to try something else. One approach would be to use a plugin like Add From Server that will pull in images from a folder and register them in the media library.

    Note: this last approach will likely result in different URLs then the URLs that are already in the content so you might still need to search and replace.

    I hope that helps!

    Thread Starter adunate

    (@adunate)

    Thanks @sewmyheadon for your helpful advice. I’ve been working on things and here’s where I now stand. All her images are uploaded to her ftp but not showing in her Media Library, as is WordPress policy (images need to be uploaded from Library for that). That’s okay, we don’t really need to see them.

    However, as you mentioned, we still have the two different image paths:

    one: http://www.username.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/

    and the other: https://www.username.net/wp-content/uploads/

    I have done multiple search/replace actions from Better Search Replace and also Search Replace plugins. I ask them to search for the first portion of path listed above (using the real url reference name) and then to replace it with the second listed above. Neither plugin seems to be making the replacement, although I’m likely doing something wrong.

    Thread Starter adunate

    (@adunate)

    Follow up: I finally used the plugin Go Live and that succeeded in doing the search/replace that I needed. It was simple, direct and got the job done.

    I did an export of just media and thought that was all I had to do. Unfortunately, many media files didn’t export some did. We are creating a new blog using the blog posts from an old site. All the blog posts content came over fine. And the media in most of the blogs show up. However, none of the featured images do. And now I understand that if I take that original info off the first site the media will disappear from the second.

    So, can you share with me the steps to export the media from site #1 so I can upload to site #2. I’m familiar with FTP a little bit, I don’t use it often so it’s always a learning curve again. Both sites are on GoDaddy and I can get to the FTP thru there. Just don’t know where to look or how to do it successfully.

    Any hep is appreciated.

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)
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