I recently needed to migrate a large WordPress site that was installed as a sub-blog of a Multisite (network) into a fresh single WordPress install. I’ll post the entire workflow soon, but first let me write about a less obvious issue – namely, some WordPress plugins still don’t offer a simple import/export solution.
This website particularly had a complex structure of MailPoet (formerly Wysija) newsletter plugin’s data – thousands of subscribers, dozens of different lists as well as many email templates ready to be used for future newsletters. And while MailPoet has a very limited import/export capability, the staff have been very helpful to show me how it can be done directly in phpMyAdmin (which you can access easily in your web host’s Cpanel) by importing/exporting MySQL database tables.
And what’s best with this method is that it works with any other plugin as well!
1. On the new single site install Mailpoet normally.
2. On the new server, access your database in phpMyAdmin and you will see a list of tables which start with “wp_wysija_”. (“wp” can be a different prefix in your site). Delete (drop) all of these tables!
3. On the old multisite, let’s say your sub-blog ID is “3” for example. You probably find out a list of tables start with “wp_3_wysija_”. Copy these tables to the new server’s db. Note: Exporitng multiple tables in phpMyAdmin is easy – if you don’t know how to go about it, read here.
4. On the new server, with those tables you’ve done in step #3, rename them to “wp_wysija_…”.