WordPress – Export the Posts, Pages or Media content

We have discussed how to export all content of the WordPress site in our previous Article “WordPress – How to Export All content from WordPress site?“. There was a problem when we export all content at a time; because depending on the size of the content, PHP consumes more memory and some of the hosting providers may not provide the option to increase the memory for PHP. So, the option we have is; instead of exporting all content at a time; we can export the partial content depending on the selection criteria; for example, you can export ONLY the posts which are in the specified date range.

We will discuss what are the options WordPress provides to us to Export the partial content of the WordPress site into an XML file. These options are very useful when you want to export the content based on certain selection criteria.

Lets’ discuss how to export the partial content from the WordPress site.

Step 1. Login into your WordPress site as an Administrator. You may NOT see the Export options; if your login user does not have admin privileges to your WordPress site.

Step 2. Go to the Export page by selecting the Tools tab and then click on the Export link. This page provides options to export all content or partial content from the WordPress site.

Choose what to export

Step 3. From the Tools -> Export page select one of the below options to export the partial content of the website.

Posts
Pages
Media

Lets’ look at each of these options.

Export only Posts

WordPress provides an option to export ONLY the posts.

Step 4. Select the Posts option. WordPress displays a few more options to allow you to filter the content which you want to export. For example, either to export all posts or posts which are into a particular category or posts which are written by a particular Author or posts which are in the given date range and finally posts depending on the status of the post.

Categories: field allows you to select ONE of the categories OR select all the categories by selecting All option from it. It doesn’t allow you to select multiple categories; except All option.

Authors: field allows you to filter the Posts by particular Author. This also doesn’t allow multi selection; except selecting all Authors by selecting All option.

Start date: and End date: fields are useful to select the Posts which are created in the date range.

Select the dates cautiously. Usually End date should be higher than the Start date. But WordPress doesn’t warn you if you select Start date as higher than End date. Finally, you will NOT see the expected data when you export into the file.

Status: field allows you to select the Posts based on the status (Published, Scheduled, Draft, Pending, Private) of the Post. This field also doesn’t suport multi selection; except selecting all statuses by selecting All option.

For example, if you want to select the Posts which are Published in the month of September 2018; your selection should be like below:

From “Categories:” and “Authors:” fields select All option.

Select “September 2018“ as the start date in “Start date:” field and the same in “End date:” field as an end date.

From “Status:” field select Published option.

This selection will Export only the Published posts and which are published in the month of September 2018.

Export only static Pages

Another option WordPress provides is to export only the static Pages. Pages like About Us, Terms and Conditions, etc., where we don’t display dynamic content on the Pages.

Step 5. Select the Pages option to export only the static Pages. WordPress displays below fields to allow to filter the selection:

Authors: field to filter the pages based on the Author of the Page or allows to select all the authors by selecting All option from it. This field doesn’t allow you to select multiple Authors at a time; except selecting All option for selecting all the Authors.

Start date: and End date: fields are allowed to select the Pages which are created between the start and end date range.

Status: field allows to select the Pages based on their current status; whether the page is Published, Scheduled, Draft, Pending or Private. You can select all the statuses by selecting All option. This field also doesn’t allow you to select multiple statuses at a time; except selecting All option to select all the statuses.

For example, if you want to export all the Pages from the Author “Mourya”; you can select:

Select the Author Mourya from “Authors:” field.

No selection required for “Start date:” and “End date:” fields.

Select All option from “Status:” field.

This way we can Export only the static Pages from the Author “Mourya”.

Export only Media information

Step 6. By selecting the Media option, WordPress allows to Export the media information between the selected date range.

Start date: and End date: fields are allowed to select start and end dates in between the Media information was added or created.

For example, if you want to Export all media information; don’t select any dates in the “Start date:” and “End date:” fields.

Step 7. Once the relevant options are selected click on the “Download Export File” button to download the selected content to the XML file. WordPress will start Exporting the selected content to an XML file.

These are the Options WordPress provides to Export the content based on the selection criteria.

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