Export a WordPress Site

Do you want to export the content of your WordPress site, your database, or everything? Exporting is useful if you need to transfer to a different hosting provider, or server, or from a hosted WordPress website to a self-hosted one, whether you self-host WordPress or have a WordPress.com site.

When you export a WordPress website, you’re saving and moving a portion or all of your site to another location. You can save it to your computer and use it to migrate your website, or you can save it as a backup.

You may export your WordPress site in a variety of methods. Let’s get started!
Contents Table of Contents
What Is the Best Way to Export a WordPress Site from WordPress.com?
How to Use a Built-In Tool to Export a WordPress Site
How to Use MyKinsta to Export a WordPress Site
How to Manually Export a WordPress Site Using phpMyAdmin and SFTP
What Is the Best Way to Export a WordPress Site from WordPress.com?
Follow the steps below if you have a managed WordPress.com site and want to know how to export WordPress site material – in part or altogether – to a new host.

Exporting All or Parts of a Document
You can export the following types of content:

Pages and posts
Content from the media library Links (blogroll)
1st step
Make sure you’re connected to your WordPress.com account before exporting your WordPress site. Begin by selecting the website from which you wish to export content once you’ve logged in.

In the top left-hand corner, select My Sites. Click Switch Site if you have many sites and don’t see the one you want to export listed towards the top of the left-hand menu.

The Switch Site button is located on the upper left of the default stats page.
The dashboard of WordPress.com.
Then, on the left, click on the site whose material you want to export.

After clicking the Switch Sites button, you’ll see a list of examples on the left.
On the left, you’ll find a list of your websites.
2nd Step
Then, in the menu on the left, select Tools > Export. You can export the content of your WordPress site from this page.

Click the Export All button to export all of your site’s content.

The Export section of the website
Select Export All from the drop-down menu.
Alternatively, click the arrow next to the Export All button if you only wish to export certain categories of documents. You’ll be able to pick and choose the content you’d like to export.

The Export section of the website
To export content, use the arrow buttons to select it.
After that, choose whether to export posts, pages, or feedback.

After you’ve selected either the posts or page options, you’ll have access to further options.

You can further select what you wish to export if you click on them.

This is the Export page. A specific amount of content has been defined.
Select the content you’d want to export.
You can filter what you export using the Posts option by:

Start and end dates for authors
Category
You can get more particular with the Pages option by picking the:

Start and end dates for authors
3rd step
Click the Export Selected Content option after you’ve made your selection.

This is the Export page. A specific amount of content has been defined.
Select the content you’d want to export.
You can filter what you export using the Posts option by:

Start and end dates for authors
Category
You can get more particular with the Pages option by picking the:

Start and end dates for authors
3rd step
Click the Export Selected Content option after you’ve made your selection.

This is the Export page. A specific amount of content has been defined.
Select the content you’d want to export.
You can filter what you export using the Posts option by:

Start and end dates for authors
Category
You can get more particular with the Pages option by picking the:

Start and end dates for authors
3rd step
Click the Export Selected Content option after you’ve made your selection.

Whether you choose to export all or selected content, the process of exporting WordPress site content will have started. This could take several minutes, depending on the size of your site.

You should get a notice stating that your content was successfully exported.

4th step

You will receive an email containing a link to download your exported content. It will be in a ZIP file.

You can also immediately download and save the exported content to your computer.

To do so, go to the “success” message and click the Download link.

On the Export page, a message confirming a successful export appears.
To save your exported content, click the download link.
The ZIP file may be immediately downloaded, you may be given the option to choose where to save the file, or you may be asked if you want to open it right away, depending on your browser and its current settings.

Media Extraction
You may also opt to export only the media from your WordPress site that has been uploaded to your Media Library.

1st step
After signing into your WordPress.com account, go to Tools > Export and then click My Sites in the top left-hand corner.

If the site you wish to export isn’t featured towards the top, go back to step one and switch between sites.

Step 2: In the Export media library area, click the Download option.

The Export section of the website
To download, click the Download button.
3rd step
Then save the TAR file you’ve created to your PC.

As previously stated, depending on your browser and its settings, you may be asked to confirm that you wish to download the file, invited to choose a folder in which to save the file, or the download may begin immediately.

Link Exporting
You can also export your blogroll, which is a list of links to your WordPress site. The steps below will show you how to do it.

1st step
Enter your-site.wordpress.com/wp-links-opml.php in your browser’s URL bar, replacing “your-site” with your actual site’s name.

2nd Step
Save the file to your computer after that. You may need to confirm the download before it begins, depending on your browser.

Using a WordPress.com Private Site to Export
The techniques to export WordPress site content listed above will not function if your site is set to private. However, if you make your website public first, you can export what you need. Don’t worry; once you’re finished, you can set your site back to private.

Step 1: Make sure you’re logged into WordPress.com and go to My Sites in the top left corner to make your site public.

If the site from which you wish to export content isn’t available, click the Switch Site button and choose the right website from the list.

2nd Step
Then, under the menu on the left side of the page, select Manage > Settings. Double-check that you’re on the General tab, which is the default setting.

3rd step
Select Public from the list of options under the Privacy section. Then press the Save Changes button.

Page of options
To export WordPress site content, set your site to “public.”
4th step
Follow the steps found earlier that correspond to the type of content you want to export.

Step 5 If you wish to make your site private again, go back to Manage > Settings and go down to the Privacy area of the General page on the General tab.

Select Private from the drop-down menu, then click Save Changes.

How to Export WordPress Site Using a Built-In Tool
You can export WordPress site material directly from your admin panel for self-hosted WordPress sites. If you only want to transfer your site’s textual content and media assets and not the WordPress core files or database, this is a good option. It’s also a good choice if you wish to preserve a copy of your site’s content as a backup.

You can export the following sorts of site content using this method:

Posts \sPages \sMedia
Other information
The above-mentioned content
Data generated by ecommerce plugins, for example, can be included in other content.

Do you want to discover how we grew our traffic by over 1000%?
Join the 20,000+ people who receive our weekly email with WordPress insider secrets!

Now is the time to subscribe.
Products \sOrders \sVariations
Coupons \sTestimonials
It could potentially take the form of content generated by some of your installed plugins:

Forms of communication
Case studies are used to illustrate a point.
Popups \sShowcases
Other material that is comparable
The steps for effectively exporting WordPress content using built-in tools are as follows:

Step 1: Make sure you’re logged into your self-hosted WordPress site before exporting this type of content. Then, on the admin dashboard, select Tools > Export from the left-hand menu.

The WordPress admin dashboard’s Export page.
The admin dashboard of a WordPress site can be used to export content.
2nd Step
You have the option of selecting All Content or one of the other alternatives at this time.

Step 3: Select Download Export File and wait for the export process to finish. You can save the file to your computer once it is ready with your exported content.

You may be prompted before the download begins, depending on your browser and its current settings.

How to Use MyKinsta to Export a WordPress Site
If you want to export your WordPress site files and database tables, use MyKinsta and follow the procedures below.

1st step
Log into your MyKinsta account and go to the Sites section of the left-hand menu.

In MyKinsta, go to the Sites page.
View the list of WordPress sites you’ve installed.
2nd Step
Select the site from the list that you wish to export by clicking its link. Then, on the left, click the Backups tab, and then the Download tab at the top.

The Backups section of the menu bar
Navigate to the Backups tab, then to the Download tab.
3rd step
If you haven’t produced a downloaded backup yet, you can do so now by clicking the Create Backup Now button.

It’s worth noting that, depending on the size of your site, you could have to wait several minutes for the backup to complete.

The Download tab, with the backup option showing.
Create a downloaded backup on your own.
If a backup and its information are presented on the Download page, you can download the file by clicking the Download Backup link.

Are you fed up with a sluggish WordPress host? We offer lightning-fast servers and world-class WordPress support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Take a look at our plans.

The Download tab, includes a backup option.
To download your backup, click the link.
Keep in mind that before the download is saved to your computer, your browser may ask you to confirm it. This is determined by the browser you’re using.

How to Export WordPress Site Manually with phpMyAdmin + SFTP
You can also use SFTP to export WordPress site files and phpMyAdmin to export WordPress site database tables for self-hosted WordPress websites.

The following are the steps for both options:

Taking Backups of Your WordPress Files
You’ll need an FTP (File Transfer Protocol) software like FileZilla installed on your PC to use this option to export WordPress site files.

To get started, open your favorite FTP client and connect to your site using SFTP (Secure File Transfer Protocol) (understand the difference between FTP and SFTP).

The procedures to achieve this differ depending on the FTP client you’re using, so if you’re not sure how to connect, see the software’s manual.

For further information, see How to Connect to Your WordPress Site Using SFTP.

Step 2 From the list of your site’s files and directories, find the folder or sub-folder you wish to export.

3rd step
Then, in the FTP client, click and drag the file to the section allocated to your machine.

A webpage is attached to a FileZilla window.
SFTP allows you to drag and drop files from your server to your machine.
You have the option of selecting multiple files and directories at once.

It’s worth noting that, depending on the size of the file or folder, the download may take a minute (or two) to complete.

Taking Backups of Your WordPress Database
For self-hosted WordPress websites, you can select to export the database tables. If your site’s files are still intact, you want a redundant backup, or you only need your database tables for your specific reasons, this is quite handy.

Check out How to Back Up a MySQL Database for more information (2 Incredibly Easy Methods).

1st step
phpMyAdmin can be accessed via MyKinsta or cPanel. After you’ve checked in, you can use MyKinsta to rapidly log out.

Click Sites from the left-hand menu, then select the site you want to export from the list.

Scroll down to the section about database access. You may check your login credentials and open phpMyAdmin to access your database in a new browser tab by clicking the Open phpMyAdmin link.

The MyKinsta dashboard’s Info tab
From your MyKinsta account, you may access phpMyAdmin.
If your host utilizes cPanel, log into your account and look under the Databases area for the phpMyAdmin link.

Dashboard for cPanel
phpMyAdmin can be accessed using cPanel.
Step 2 Once you’re in phpMyAdmin, look for your site’s database in the left-hand menu and click it.

The phpMyAdmin interface
Choose your database from the drop-down menu.
3rd step
Then, in the main content area of the page, click the Export tab.

In the phpMyAdmin dashboard, the Export tab has been selected.
Select the Export option from the drop-down menu.
4th step
You may now select between using the quick or bespoke methods to export your full database. If you need a database backup or wish to import your database into a new WordPress installation later, the quick option is ideal. If you’re going to import your database into an existing WordPress site, however, go with the custom export approach.

Select the Quick option to export all of your database tables.

The Export section of the website
Choose the Quick option from the drop-down menu.
Choose the Custom option to export your database so that it may be imported into an existing WordPress site.

Additional options will display if needed. Choose the tables you want to export from the list.

The custom export method’s settings
Choose the tables you’d want to export.
Then scroll down to the Add DROP TABLE / VIEW / PROCEDURE / FUNCTION / EVENT / TRIGGER statement box and check it. This ensures that any tables in your pre-existing database with the same name are dumped, or removed. That way, you’ll be able to import the tables you need.

On the Export page, the custom option has been selected.
You have the option of using a custom export method.
5th step
Wait for the process to finish after clicking the Go button. Depending on the size of your database, this could take some time.

You can save the SQL file to your PC once it has completed processing.

For whatever reason, you may need to export your WordPress site (or just a portion of it). This comprehensive step-by-step explanation will teach you how to do so! 🏃🔛
TO TWEET, CLICK HERE
Summary
You now know how to export WordPress sites from WordPress.com utilizing the built-in tool, MyKinsta, SFTP, and phpMyAdmin, thanks to the procedures outlined above.

If you have a WordPress site hosted with us and require additional assistance, please contact our support staff. More documentation articles can be found in our knowledge base. We’ll take care of everything for you.

This is the Export page. A specific amount of content has been defined.
Select the content you’d want to export.
You can filter what you export using the Posts option by:

Start and end dates for authors
Category
You can get more particular with the Pages option by picking the:

Start and end dates for authors
3rd step
Click the Export Selected Content option after you’ve made your selection.

Save time, and money, and improve site performance by using:

Expert WordPress hosting assistance is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Integration with Cloudflare Enterprise.
With 29 data centers across the world, we can reach a global audience.
With our built-in Application Performance Monitoring, you can improve your performance.
All of this and more is included in a single plan that includes no long-term obligations, aided migrations, and a 30-day money-back guarantee. Check out our plans or speak with a sales representative to find the ideal plan for you.

This is the Export page. A specific amount of content has been defined.
Select the content you’d want to export.
You can filter what you export using the Posts option by:

Start and end dates for authors
Category
You can get more particular with the Pages option by picking the:

Start and end dates for authors
3rd step
Click the Export Selected Content option after you’ve made your selection.