When migrating your website content, it’s important to know that users data is just as significant as Posts, Pages, and Custom Posts data. Migrating all data is simply done using an Import/Export plugin such as WP Ultimate CSV Importer. This plugin can import and export your users/WooCommerce customers data along with their billing and shipping information. It can also let you update existing users’ data.
Using WP Ultimate CSV Importer, you can easily manage the users information without manual entries. It offers a wide range of filters to export only the data you require. Adding to that, you can export and import users with metadata. To create meta fields in the users, you can use third-party add-ons like WP-Members, Members, Ultimate Member and ACF, Toolset, JetEngine, and more.
Is it significant to take a backup of your WordPress site?
Any reasons like hardware or software failure, human error, or server crashes may result in the loss of necessary site data. Taking a backup can protect you from such data loss and help you restore the site data quickly. So you wouldn’t lose your data. Using Ultimate CSV Importer you can take a safe backup of all your content including Posts, Pages, Comments, Categories, WooCommerce data, and more. Here in this blog, we’ll see the complete features of User export using the Ultimate CSV Importer plugin.
How to Export WordPress Users?
Exporting users data is indispensable if you’re about to migrate your site or need to take a backup of all your necessary data. You can export user information, their passwords, WooCommerce plugin-generated fields like billing/shipping information, and other data. Here we will see how to export users with the metadata using Ultimate CSV Importer.
- Navigate to the Ultimate CSV Importer (Pro) plugin in your WordPress instance and click the Exporter tab.
- Select users and click continue.
- The next step is “To export data based on the filters”.
- 1. Export File Name - Give a name to the export file.
- 2. Export Type - Here are the four different types of file formats you can export: CSV, XML, XLS, and JSON. Choose anyone.
- 3. Split the Record - Allows splitting and exporting records. If you have many records to export you can use this option. For example, you give the value 100 after enabling the checkbox and have chosen the CSV file type to export. It will download the files as a zip. Inside the zip file, you can see CSV files. The first exported CSV will contain the first 100 records and the second CSV contains the next hundred records and so on.
- 4. Using advanced filters, you can export any specific data from WordPress you need. Export data with auto delimiters, specific periods, and specific Inclusions(specific fields selection to export).
- 5. To schedule your export, just enable the "Do you want to schedule this export" and fill out the details: schedule date, time, frequency, and time zone then click Schedule Export.
- If you haven’t used the scheduling option. Click the Export button to export your data and then Download. Now the files will be downloaded locally that contain all the User details and meta fields in your CSV.
Exported CSV
How to Export Users with Metadata?
To begin with, let’s see why users should have custom fields. Custom fields are helpful to collect more information about website users. You can use third-party add-ons to create these additional fields.
If you have created metadata(custom fields) using plugins like ACF, JetEngine, Toolset, Metabox, etc., You can export users data along with its metadata using the Ultimate CSV Importer plugin.
We have the aforementioned export steps. To export specific users fields with metadata follow the below steps
- 1. If you only want to export metadata and some specific user fields, navigate to the Ultimate CSV Importer Pro plugin. Click Export and select the module “Users” and then click Continue.
- 2. On the next page click “Export Based on Specific Inclusion”. Here you can select the meta fields and default user fields you want to export.
- 3. At last, click export and download.
The below picture shows the custom fields assigned for users that were created using ACF, Toolset Types, and MetaBox plugins.
How to Export WooCommerce Customers along with Membership plugin information
In WordPress, the customer who visits and makes a purchase on your WooCommerce store will automatically become a User. This will include some additional fields in the users like Billing and Shipping Information. Ultimate CSV Importer will export all the User details along with Billing and Shipping information.
It also supports membership plugins like WP Member, Ultimate Member, and Members. For example, I have created meta fields using Ultimate Member, and WP Member plugins and assigned them to users. You can see that in the below screenshot.
To export WooCommerce customers with metadata follow the above steps explained to export the User with all the details. And if you want to export only some fields with WooCommerce User information, navigate to the Ultimate CSV Importer plugin >> click Exporter Tab. Select Users >> then click Continue.
Choose “Export Based on Specific Inclusion”. There you can see Billing and Shipping Information and Custom Fields of Membership plugins widgets. Click and select the fields you want to export.
Import WordPress Users using WP Ultimate CSV Importer
Creating large numbers of users or updating existing users or adding new roles, etc manually sucks your time. Ultimate CSV Importer makes the process simple and easy with just a few clicks. You can import Customer Billing Shipping information and metadata using the plugin. Let’s see how to do it.
- Click on the Ultimate CSV Importer(Pro) plugin in your WordPress dashboard. It will open up the Import tab. Upload your CSV/XML file. If you don’t have any, download a sample CSV/XML file for reference. Then prepare your own and upload it.
- After uploading, select users from Import each record dropdown. Continue with New Item to import the new users or choose Existing Items to update the old users data.
- All the file header fields must be mapped to WordPress field headers. User Login, User Email, and Language are mandatory fields.
- Skip the media handling section. In the Import configuration section, there are 4 different options available to configure your import.
- Enable safe prestate Rollback (Backup before import) - Import can be reverted to the previous state if any issues arise.
- Do you want to SWITCH ON Maintenance mode while import? - To notify the visitors that the site is under maintenance mode.
- Do you want to handle the duplicate on existing records? - Enable this to truncate the duplicate records.
- Do you want to Schedule this Import? - Fill out all the details necessary to run the data import at a particular time.
Click Import to finish the process.
You can verify the status in Admin View/Web View by clicking the “View Log” button.
How to Import Users with Metadata?
Follow the above steps to import the User. If you have to add additional columns in your CSV that are the meta fields. At the time of configuring import, in the mapping section, a new widget will appear for mapping custom fields so you have to map the CSV headers with WordPress fields.
As mentioned above, the Ultimate CSV Importer plugin supports meta fields created with plugins like JetEngine, ACF, toolset, Meta Box, etc., Know the compatible plugins listed here.
For instance, I created an ACF and Types fields and assigned them to the User. In the mapping section, new widgets with naming ACF Pro Fields and Types Custom Fields will appear. You can see that in the below screenshot.
How to Import WooCommerce Users and Membership plugin information
Not only exporting, but Ultimate CSV Importer also supports importing data into Membership plugins like WP Member, Ultimate Member, and Members plugins. Furthermore, you can import the WooCommerce Billing and Shipping Information of the User.
- 1. After you upload your file inside the plugin, choose "Users" from the drop-down menu.
- 2. Then in the Mapping section, along with the default user field, the WooCommerce Billing Shipping Information widget and Membership custom field widget will appear.
- 3. Map all the fields and next continue to Import.
How does it work with Passwords?
In the plugin page, go to Settings >> General Settings >> Send password to user. Enable the “Send password to user” toggle to send passwords via email.
To provide customized passwords to the users, prepare your CSV with the password assigned to users and import it. Otherwise, the plugin will automatically generate the password and share it with the users via email.
Note: To send passwords via email, make sure you have enabled and configured Easy WP SMTP in your WordPress.
How to update WordPress Users?
When you decide to update existing User data, begin to export the users data from your WordPress and make all necessary changes to the exported CSV file, and save it. Then import the file with our plugin.
Let’s explore how we can accomplish this using the Ultimate CSV Importer plugin.
Updating is just as same as importing, only a few steps will differ.
Likewise, import, and upload the CSV file. Next to that, you have to select Existing Items and map all the fields required to update data.
Select a field from the ‘Update records based on’ dropdown in the Import section, to update existing records based on the selected User Email/ID/Login field. That’s all you need to do.
Tips for successful User Import and Export
- File Format: When you are ready to import, make sure your CSV/XML is in a valid format. Use a file validator to check the files before uploading.
- Duplicate Checking: Check if there are any duplicate records in your CSV or else enable “Do you want to handle the duplicate on existing records?” in the Import configuration section to restrict the duplicates entering your website.
- Trial Import: Try a test import with the User CSV to ensure it is error-free and successfully import. Download CSV & XML file samples here to know how to give or include values to the files.
- Backup your WordPress site: Before importing any data it is necessary to keep a safe backup to revert the website data in case of any error occurs in the import process. Use the “Enable safe prestate Rollback (Backup before import)” in the Ultimate CSV Importer plugin to keep a backup before import.
Frequently Asked Questions for WordPress Users Import & Export
1. How do I export my WordPress users to another site?
To get started, install and activate the Ultimate CSV Importer plugin on your WordPress site. Go to the plugin’s Export tab and click on users. Provide a filename and choose a file type. Then click the Export button. After the file is exported, make changes to that file as needed and prepare it for re-import into your new website.
2. Can I export/import WordPress users with their passwords?
Yes, you can. Ultimate CSV Importer plugin exports users data along with their password. You can import users and their passwords, if the password fields are empty the plugin will send auto-generated passwords to the appropriate user email id.
3. I have a specific scenario where I have two user profiles with the same name. How can I change/update the record in this situation?
Yes. Even though the users have the same name they differ in their Email IDs. So you can easily update the users record based on Email ID.
4. Can I import Zip Code with user data?
Yes, it is possible to import Billing and Shipping Information(including Zip Codes) to the users module. Prepare the CSV, with all the details and import the data.
5. Is there a plugin for automated User Import and Export?
There are many plugins available to Import & Export users. Here are a few suggestions:
- WP Ultimate CSV Importer
- WP All Import
- User Meta Pro
- Export User Data
When choosing a plugin do detailed research and select the best plugin that fits your needs.
We hope that this article is helpful to you. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to us at [email protected] if you have any inquiries.