WP Multisite and Export/Backup - suggestions?

We’re running a multisite install of WP (using subdomains) for an ePortfolio project at the U. I’d like to add a reasonable (hopefully free!) plugin for individual site migration that would include backup/migration of the media files. WP has a native export that pulls the content, sans media.

Poking through the varied options, I’m struggling to find one that clearly gives one a backup or export (I really only need export to local DL, not automated backup with bells/whistles to the cloud - though that would be a bonus.)

The goal: Offer students a self-managed off ramp from the platform as they graduate or if they opt to migrate to their own domain.

I don’t want (or need) a site-wide backup/export tool run by the admin.

Thanks!

I’m hoping this community might offer some recommendations.

I’ve done this a couple times at least. Can’t you just export the individual site to file, then import that into a freshly installed WordPress while keeping the old site online (in order to pull the media)?

Thanks. This will work, but pulling the media file by file and then re-adding it file by file post/page by post/page is pretty time consuming. I’m looking for a solution that is a bit more streamlined and works on the subdomains in a multisite.

When you import a WordPress XML file it offers the option to download the images automatically and associates them with the posts/pages. As long as the URLs are still online in my experience it doesn’t require any manual work. Though it may not be ideal if you’d have to have the original site online for it to work (and of course WordPress export/import doesn’t include themes, widgets, settings, plugins, etc).

I don’t know of anything free that gets at this issue, breaking a single site out of a multisite can be difficult. A popular plugin I often recommend called Updraft Plus has an addon for multisite but they’re not able to go in that direction (Multisite to standalone). A really slick plugin I’ve also used is called BackupBuddy and they have experimental support for Multisite http://ithemes.com/codex/page/BackupBuddy_Multisite. That being said it’s unfortunately not free and not inexpensive either for this. There could be others out there I’m not aware of.

Thanks. I feared this may be more difficult than a basic WP install situation, but I was hoping I was missing something obvious. I’ll do a little testing on the export/import with media. I haven’t done an export/import in years. Maybe it’s just better now. I’m not so troubled by the theme customization, widgets, and plugins. What I’m most interested in is a relatively simple way for a user to get his/her content (including media) off our system and into their own installation.

It has improved and there’s a revamped importer here that might interest you.

2 Likes