moving site (+images) from self-hosted to wordpress.com

  • Unknown's avatar
    michelegreg22 · Member ·

    Hi,

    I’m trying to move a site from a self-hosted wp instance to wordpress.com
    I’ve more or less got the xml export working (I needed to divide the xml export file into lots of smaller ones to get a successful upload without timing out).

    I realize that my image links for posts will be directing to content files on my previous hosts server, which is shutting down. I’m assuming I’ll have to upload media from the old host to wordpress.com, separate from the xml– how might I do this with wordpress.com? And is there an easy way to update the links so that they’re correct on my new wordpress.com site?

    I don’t plan to use the new wordpress.com site for business purpose so I’m not able to paying for an account that would allow for the use of plugins.

    Thanks!

    z/mg

    The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)

  • kokkieh · Staff ·

    Hi there,

    I realize that my image links for posts will be directing to content files on my previous hosts server, which is shutting down

    Is the previous site currently still online and connected to the domain it had when you generated the export?

    If it is, our importer should automatically transfer across the media files as the posts where they are referenced are imported. That doesn’t always work, but we can also try manually importing them after the fact, as long as the source site is still online.

    So please try to keep the current site online until you’re sure everything made it across, but to be on the safe side I’d also recommend you ask your host for a full backup of your site, including the media folder.

    I’m assuming I’ll have to upload media from the old host to wordpress.com, separate from the xml– how might I do this with wordpress.com?

    Should the images not make it across and the original site is already offline so we can’t backfill them, the only way would be to manually edit the posts with missing images and re-upload the correct images from within the editor.

    And is there an easy way to update the links so that they’re correct on my new wordpress.com site?

    This should also happen automatically during the import – all media file URLs and internal links referenced in your posts and pages should be updated to the WordPress.com equivalent. Again this doesn’t always happen correctly, but in that case we might be able to fix it for you after the fact. We can’t do that in all cases, though, so this is a promise that we’ll try, but not necessarily that it will work :)

    Let me know if you have any other questions about this.

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