WolkTools Dry Run Importer

Open Tools > Dry Run Importer in the WordPress admin. The export screen is next to it, at Tools > Dry Run Exporter. It sits under "Tools" rather than in its own top-level menu because that is where the standard WordPress importer lives, so import tools are where most people look for them first. If you would rather not hunt through the menu, the "Open" link on the plugin's row in the Plugins page takes you straight to the import screen, and a notice with the same link appears once right after activation.

The plugin is designed around a safety model: it always takes an automatic backup before import, automatically blocks dangerous content, and lets you restore at any time. That said, the first time you use it on production, we recommend first trying a "Dry Run" on a test/staging environment, reviewing the warning messages, and securing a full external DB/file backup before use.

No. Restore only returns the post's text, metadata, and taxonomy relationships to the backup point. To protect server disk space, image files already saved to the Media Library are not deleted.

When you uninstall, the temporary task information, per-post backup logs, and processing-log tables that the plugin created are safely and completely removed from the database, and the wpsi_* settings options are erased as well. Your normal posts and Media Library images are never deleted.

We most recommend matching by "Slug." Matching by "Title" risks accidentally overwriting a different article that happens to share the same title. Use matching by "ID" only when you are certain the post IDs intentionally coincide between source and destination (for example, syncing staging to production).

If WordPress isn't installed yet, or you want to check WXR structure or reconcile against a CSV without affecting a running WordPress site, use the "Web Checker" — a single self-contained HTML page that runs fully offline in your browser. It is distributed separately from this plugin (it is not included in the plugin ZIP); you can find the download link on the plugin page. When you want to actually bring data into WordPress safely and use the per-post backup and restore features, use the "WP Plugin."

Yes. However, image download makes external HTTP requests and creates new attachments in the destination Media Library, so run it deliberately after confirming the liveness and safety of the image URLs (including an SSRF-prevention filter) in the Dry Run.

Yes. This is the most reliable migration procedure.

1. Upload the images manually to the destination Media Library (drag and drop in the admin, etc.). That alone lets WordPress correctly handle the storage path, thumbnails, and ownership/permissions (no need to copy the uploads folder structure or chown on the server).
2. Import the WXR. With the advanced option "Link to existing media by filename (don't create duplicates)" (ON by default), each attachment is matched against existing media by filename (plus image-dimension matching) and linked to the existing ID without creating duplicates. Featured images, ACF image fields, and in-content image references are remapped to that existing media.
3. The pre-flight before import shows "Linked to existing media: N / same filename in multiple places → create new / dimension mismatch → create new," so you always confirm before importing.

1. Register the field definitions first if the source site uses ACF (or similar): recreate the ACF field groups on the destination via ACF's JSON sync, copy, or by activating the theme/plugin that defines them. Values import even without the definitions, but until the definitions exist the fields stay blank/uneditable in the editor.
2. Stage the images in the destination Media Library (see the manual-upload FAQ above).
3. Import the WXR — run the Dry Run, review the report, then apply.

ACF field definitions are usually managed outside the content (ACF admin UI, JSON sync, or code), so they are not part of a WXR file. Warnings of the kind "definition is not in the WXR" (e.g. parent field group not found, referenced field definition missing) are expected in that setup — register the definitions on the destination site first (see the FAQ above) and the report returns to normal. However, a warning that a field's value itself is missing is a real sign the field will end up empty; review those before importing.

No. Importing never deletes destination content — it only creates and updates the posts contained in the file. If you need to remove posts that were deleted on the source, delete them manually on the destination.

Dry Run Exporter is based on WordPress core's export_wp() and generates a safely server-side-filtered WXR XML file on the fly. Before exporting, always click "Preview" to confirm the number of posts and attachments to be exported, the estimated file size, and PII warnings such as author email addresses. The Attachment mode (how related media is exported) offers three behaviors: "auto" (auto-collect only media related to the selected posts), "include" (include all site media), and "exclude" (exclude media). Note: WXR XML files contain author email addresses and display names. Handle export files with appropriate care for personal data.