WordPress.com Forums » Topic: Import didn't import upload files (images)

davidtenser on "Import didn't import upload files (images)"

davidtenser — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 21:00:42 +0000

That just makes me even more impressed. Kudos! Thanks once again.

tandava108 on "Import didn't import upload files (images)"

tandava108 — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 19:07:18 +0000

You're welcome, I am a volunteer!
I'm glad its resolved.

davidtenser on "Import didn't import upload files (images)"

davidtenser — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 18:34:11 +0000

That's a good suggestion. However, I never had to try it.

I'm not really sure why, but I attempted to remove everything again and do a third import, and this time it all worked perfectly!

So consider this thread resolved. Thanks tandava108 for your very prompt replies! I'm really impressed, regardless of whether you're paid or volunteering. Much appreciated!

tandava108 on "Import didn't import upload files (images)"

tandava108 — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 14:12:34 +0000

I suppose one option would be to export, search and replace in the XML file to make references absolute, then import again.

There are some editors that allow you to edit huge files!

davidtenser on "Import didn't import upload files (images)"

davidtenser — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 13:56:23 +0000

I also checked the general settings of the blog and indeed the "WordPress address (URL)" setting was set to "/blog", not "http://djst.org/blog". Changing this setting has no effect on the already published blog posts.

davidtenser on "Import didn't import upload files (images)"

davidtenser — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 13:54:12 +0000

Some possibly relevant information: in my djst.org/blog blog posts, I noticed that the images are referred to as e.g. img src="/blog/wp-content/uploads/...*.jpg", in other words with a relative path as opposed of the absolute "http://djst.org/blog/wp-content...". The only reason why I mention this is because I was able to successfully import another blog including the /uploads/ data, and in that blog all images were referred to by their absolute path instead.

Example from the blog post I've been referring to all the time above:

In Firefox, navigate to the Wikipedia article you want to read. You'll see something like this:
<img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-746" title="blocked" src="/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/blocked-440x241.png" alt="" width="440" height="241" />

Now, since this is the way images are referred to in each individual blog post, I can't really change this since I'd have to manually edit all blog posts, which would take forever.

Again, not even sure if this is related but I figured I'd provide the information just in case. It would really be depressing if this is the culprit, since the only way I could fix this would be to manually edit every individual blog post to use absolute img urls, which would take forever. :(

tandava108 on "Import didn't import upload files (images)"

tandava108 — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 13:34:55 +0000

I have already added the staff tag here, but they can take a while to respond. You could also raise a support request but they have rearranged the site and I can't see how!

davidtenser on "Import didn't import upload files (images)"

davidtenser — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 13:18:33 +0000

Update: I just got an email saying that the import was successful, but I still don't see any images. Using the same blog post as an example:

Original: http://djst.org/blog/2012/01/18/firefox-tip-getting-past-the-wikipedia-blackout/
New: http://davidtenser.wordpress.com/2012/01/18/firefox-tip-getting-past-the-wikipedia-blackout/

One of the original images: http://djst.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/menu-440x129.png
The new target (as linked to from the new blog post): http://davidtenser.wordpress.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/menu-440x129.png

The latter is a 404. Since I got the e-mail about the import being successful, I'm assuming that the background importing of images has already finished, and failed.

Bottom line: I still need help from staff!

tandava108 on "Import didn't import upload files (images)"

tandava108 — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 13:08:52 +0000

You can export from wordpress.com and import into .org, and I understand that it is a straight forward import though I have not done it myself.

WordPress.com offer a guided transfer service at a one-off cost of $129, though other bloggers have commented that the transfer is so easy that anyone with the slightest tech savvy should not have problems doing it themselves.

davidtenser on "Import didn't import upload files (images)"

davidtenser — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 12:22:56 +0000

Update: removing all posts wasn't that hard after all, since it removes 20 per page. So I did it myself and now I just attempted another import. Let's see if it works better now. :)

Btw, let's say I want to move my blog back to a self-hosted server at some point -- will the /wp-content/uploads/ files be imported the other way around too, or do I have to do anything special to ensure I retain ownership of that data now that it's hosted on wordpress.com?

Thanks!

davidtenser on "Import didn't import upload files (images)"

davidtenser — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 12:10:59 +0000

Thanks, I'll create a new thread. I have blog posts all the way back to 2005, so it would take quite a while to do it manually.

tandava108 on "Import didn't import upload files (images)"

tandava108 — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 11:58:44 +0000

You may be able to delete the posts manually if there are not to many. You can do this a page-load at a time:

http://en.support.wordpress.com/posts/edit-posts-screen/#deleting-posts

If there are a lot then I suggest you start another thread with a title like "staff - please delete all the contents of my blog" as they will probably see that sooner than this one.

davidtenser on "Import didn't import upload files (images)"

davidtenser — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 11:43:48 +0000

Thanks tandava108. Yes, the original blog was down at the time. I tried to re-import the xml file afterwards but then nothing changed with the existing posts.

If they can clear the blog and then I can attempt to reimport, I think that would fix it. Thanks!

tandava108 on "Import didn't import upload files (images)"

tandava108 — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 10:30:01 +0000

I'll flag this for staff attention - the import should have brought the images over but obviously failed. Could the original blog have been down at the time?

They may want to clear your blog and re-import

davidtenser on "Import didn't import upload files (images)"

davidtenser — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 10:15:50 +0000

I'm trying to move from my personal server's blog (located at http://djst.org/blog) to a wordpress.com hosted location (http://davidtenser.wordpress.com since someone stole djst.wordpress.com, grumble grumble). I exported my local blog to an .xml file and it properly imported all posts, comments, etc.

However, the support documentation on your site also says the importer will grab all images uploaded to http://djst.org/blog/uploads/* but it looks like it didn't.

For example, this post:
http://djst.org/blog/2012/01/18/firefox-tip-getting-past-the-wikipedia-blackout/
...now lives at http://davidtenser.wordpress.com/2012/01/18/firefox-tip-getting-past-the-wikipedia-blackout/
...but links to the inline photos are replaced with image files named "blocked".

When I first imported my site's xml file, the actual djst.org website was down (this is a big part of why I want to move my blog to something with better uptime). Could this be the reason why it failed the import? If so, is there a way to retry the import now that djst.org is up again? I never got an email notifying me that the import of /uploads images failed, so this was a bit of a surprise.

Thanks!
http://djst.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/blocked-440x241.png