Import Large WordPress WXR File

Posted in WordPress | By AhTim @ May 26th, 2009

Migrated my wife’s blog to my web hosting successfully, finally. I hate migrate blog, is a tedious and troublesome job. Hope this is the last time!

I used WordPress Export and Import method. It is the easiest way.

Too Large to Import

Unfortunately, the exported file 10.9MB cannot be import back. My web hosting only accept WXR file up to 8MB.

Of course easiest way is to change upload_max_filesize value in php.ini settings file. Need administrator access to change the setting. Since I’m not on dedicated server, have to use another workaround.

Open the exported XML file in notepad. Cut half content and separate the file into two with format below.

Always have the header:

<rss version=”2.0″
xmlns:content=”http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/”
xmlns:wfw=”http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/”
xmlns:dc=”http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/”
xmlns:wp=”http://wordpress.org/export/1.0/”
>
<channel>
including all info like category, tags, etc to just before the first <item>

Always have the footer:

</channel>
</rss>

Cut and paste your content start with <item>  and end with </item> in between the header and footer.

The WXR file is now 5MB each and ready for import. Sit back and relax for the upload process.

Now all my wife’s blogs are on same web hosting with me.

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    6 Responses to “Import Large WordPress WXR File”

    1. dannyarcher Says:
      May 28th, 2009 at 1:52 AM

      question – Why WXR instead of zipped MySQL?

    2. AhTim Says:
      June 10th, 2009 at 12:21 AM

      @dannyarcher: import WXR file is easier for non-techie blogger.

    3. Importing Large WordPress WXR Files | Code LOL Says:
      July 12th, 2009 at 4:42 AM

      [...] I had to help someone import a 15MB WordPress WXR file today which failed because it was much too big (getting Fatal Errors). I ended up splitting the WRX as described by the article Import Large WordPress WXR File. [...]

    4. Ranger Pretzel Says:
      March 2nd, 2010 at 8:17 AM

      Need a WXR file splitter? A friend of mine had the same problem recently with her blog, so I wrote her a quick application that splits WordPress XML RSS files into smaller files that are more “digestible” by the WordPress Import function.

      It’s free and you can find it here: WXR file splitter

      It requires a Windows PC and the .NET 2.0 framework (which pretty much everyone should have by now…)

      Cheers!

    5. david lawton Says:
      March 3rd, 2010 at 11:55 AM

      I used the splitter above which is great, but wordpress still chokes easily even on small files, i have to reduce files down to about 20 ‘items’ in order for the import to work, otherwise it just appears to timeout, the import page stops loading and nothing else is imported. i really don’t want to have to import 200-300 xml files manually, is there something else i can do? what could be causing this? i’ve tried changing my host timeout and memory settings in php, htaccess, and in some wordpress files also. cheers!!

    6. Ian Stobie Says:
      August 10th, 2010 at 7:38 AM

      Thanks – the technique worked fine. The export file came from WordPress 2.5 going into WordPress 3 but no problems. Split the file in three so used Notepad++ as made getting the parts equal in size a bit easier.

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