Import Not Working
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I am trying to import a WordPress XML file into my new website, juliewatersblog.wordpress.com. The import completes successfully, and I receive the confirmation email, but the posts aren’t appearing in my Posts list; only the existing post shows up. There are no drafts either.
The AI chat has been trying to help, but in the end, it suggested I come here.
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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This is a frustrating one because everything looks like it worked, confirmation email and all, but the posts aren’t showing up. Here are the most likely causes and fixes.
1. Check if the posts imported as a different status
This is the most common cause. Posts sometimes import as Private or Pending Review rather than Published, which makes them invisible in the default Posts view.
In your dashboard go to My Site → Posts and look at the filter tabs at the top, check All, Drafts, Private, and Pending. If your posts are hiding in one of those tabs, simply select them all and bulk-change their status to Published.
2. Check if they imported to the wrong site
If you have more than one WordPress.com site on your account, the importer occasionally sends content to the wrong one. Go to wordpress.com/sites and check your other sites’ Posts lists just to rule this out.
3. The XML file may have a formatting issue
Even when the importer says “success,” a malformed XML file can result in an empty import. To check:
- Open your XML file in a browser or text editor
- Make sure it contains actual
<item>entries with<wp:post_type>post</wp:post_type>inside - If the file looks empty or truncated, you may need to re-export it from your original site
4. Try reimporting with a smaller file
If your XML file is large, WordPress.com’s importer sometimes silently skips content. Try splitting the export into smaller chunks — export by date range if your original platform supports it — and import each chunk separately.
5. Wait a little longer
For large imports, there can be a delay between the confirmation email and the posts actually appearing in the dashboard. Give it 30–60 minutes and do a hard refresh (
Ctrl + Shift + R) before trying anything else.Could you let us know roughly how many posts were in the XML file and which platform you exported from? That’ll help us narrow this down further!
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I tagged this to get help from a Staff member as they have access to the backend and can see what went wrong.
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It sounds like you’re experiencing a ‘ghost import,’ which can happen if the author mapping didn’t sync correctly or if the XML file is missing specific status tags. Even if the importer sends a success email, the posts might be sitting in a ‘hidden’ state if they weren’t explicitly assigned to your new username during the import process. I’d recommend checking your Media Library first; if your old images appear there, the data is definitely on the server and likely just needs a re-import where you carefully map all ‘Old Authors’ to your current account. If the Media Library is empty too, the XML file itself might be corrupted or too large, so trying a smaller export by date range from your old site usually does the trick!
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I checked my other WordPress sites, and my posts from my old website are not there on any of them.
I attached a screenshot of what my All Posts screen looks like. It just has the ‘Hello World” post that appears when you create a new blog.
I opened the XML file I “imported” and checked if <wp:post_type>post</wp:post_type> was in there. It is not. But I can see info about some of the posts, including the content of the post.
I don’t have a way to re-export the file, or any files, from that site, as the domain expired, so I no longer have access to it.
I imported the XML file 14 hours ago.
I think there were fewer than 10 posts. I had my own domain and ran the blog through WordPress.
I also had Pages I would like to import, but I am not sure which XML file they are in. -
Great work opening that XML file, you’ve actually found exactly what we need to fix this!
What’s happening
Because your XML is missing the
<wp:post_type>post</wp:post_type>tag inside each post entry, WordPress.com’s importer doesn’t recognise the items as posts, so it skips them entirely, even while reporting a successful import. The good news is your content is still inside the file, so nothing is lost.The fix — manually edit the XML file
Since you can see the post content in the file, we can add the missing tag manually. Here’s exactly what to do:
- Open your XML file in a plain text editor, Notepad on Windows or TextEdit on Mac (make sure TextEdit is in plain text mode, not rich text)
- Find each post entry in the file, they’ll look something like this:
<item><title>Your Post Title</title><content:encoded>Your post content here...</content:encoded>...</item>- Inside each
<item>block, add this line:
<wp:post_type>post</wp:post_type>And also add this if it’s missing:
<wp:status>publish</wp:status>- Save the file and re-import it at My Site → Tools → Import → WordPress
Since you had fewer than 10 posts this should only take a few minutes to edit manually.
For your Pages
Pages use
<wp:post_type>page</wp:post_type>instead ofpost. Check your XML file, if you can see page content in there too, add that tag to those entries the same way.One important tip Before reimporting, go to My Site → Tools → Import and check if there’s an option to clear the previous import first, this avoids any duplicate entries.
Your content is safe inside that file! Let us know how it goes
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