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duplicate image + lots of errors import WP to WP

  1. valentlau
    Member

    This is an error I reported about Oct 2010, I've been brushed off by support, it seems there are no plans at all to fix it.

    Situation:

    Export WP blog to xml, selecting all options.
    Open new WP blog, import xml, selecting all options.

    Example:

    original: testsinglepost2.wordpress.com
    new: testsinglepost.wordpress.com

    Expected:

    New WP blog should be identical to old

    Issues:

    * post featured image - not preserved, deleted
    * gallery image captions - not preserved, deleted
    * gallery image alt text, etc - not preserved, reset to post title (not slug)
    * gallery image order - randomized
    * gallery images are doubled. a post with 1 image will become a post with 2 images. however as above the order is randomized making it impossible to manually delete half the images

    * inline images - randomly linked to old post - see testsinglepost.wordpress.com/2011/03/20/test-post-for-transfer/
    the inline image points to the original link. strangely the alt text is preserved here.

    * Note that in the media library, all the new images are now named "Test post for transfer", making sorting or searching impossible

    * links to other posts are also randomly linked to old post or changed to the new, there is no way to predict which it will be.

    Conclusion:

    As a programmer myself, 80% of these look like simple fixes, it shouldn't take someone working on the code more than 2 days to fix them up. As a person who has waited for over 6mths, I've considered hand editing everything from scratch, but deleting half of 2000photos and reordering/recaptioning them sounds stupid even for me.

    Addendum:

    After a few mails with support, they introduced the domain name change feature. However this also had a few of the same issues, and after a few tests I wasn't confident enough to risk losing any data to a one-way operation.

    Also, the domain name change does not allow you to move to a WP.com name that you already own, which rules out everyone who tried the import already and found it broken.

    The blog I need help with is iliodos.wordpress.com.

  2. valentlau
    Member

    These issues I've reported to support 5 times already, with no answers. Online searches found others with the same errors, but no fixes.

  3. airodyssey
    Member

    Hi. Before writing to staff for a 6th time, check your spam folder in case your emails ended up there.

  4. valentlau
    Member

    Thanks for that, but every single support message has been responded and followed by about 1-2wks of conversation and testing, before ending with a "we'll get back to you" when the programmers fix it.

    1) they never get back
    2) it was/is/never will be(?) fixed

    The support team fully understands and has reproduced the error, and passed it on to the appropriate team

    Obviously the bug report has been tagged 'minor' or they just can't be bothered, after all it's not like a blogger user can't migrate to WP. Unless they think there's a chance a WP user may migrate elsewhere due to these bugs, maybe nobody will bother to move?

    It took them under a week to introduce the domain name change feature, maybe this bug just isn't interesting? Firefox etc also suffer from boring bugs being left behind while fun new stuff are done in a snap.

  5. thesacredpath
    Member

    Welcome to the current nightmare.

    Are you by chance importing from a self-hosted blog?

    If so there is a workaround that will take care of virtually all the issues.

  6. thesacredpath
    Member

    Here is the scoop. The import/export thing is part of wordpress core. That means the main development team has to fix it, and the wordpress.COM staff are separate from the core dev team. That means they have to pass it on to core dev and the core dev has to triage it and put it in to their fix-it list in order of priority.

  7. justjennifer
    Member

    I recently went through a similar experience and produced a transfer log that is almost word-for-word what you stated above in your first post. Staff have seen this log.

    You can also see this problem every time a new theme is introduced. Look at the new theme's demo site's Gallery post where all the images have been doubled.

    To make a long story short, it is apparent they are aware of the problem.

  8. justjennifer
    Member

    ~~ tsp

    iliodos' states above the export/import is wordpress.com to wordpress.com

  9. thesacredpath
    Member

    Oops, should have read closer.

    Contact staff and see if they can do the import for you. They have more tools at their disposal.

    @jennifer, thanks for correcting me.

  10. valentlau
    Member

    Yep, WP.com to WP.com. Yes, I think the core dev has put it to the bottom of their list.

    So the question is:

    Is it
    - infrequent thus not important, or
    - not show stopping (in the sense no data is lost in the original) thus not important, or
    - people try this and give up, thus core team doesn't think it's widespread

    Support staff have tried the imports, they get the same issues, so it really is a bug that needs to be fixed.

    I am hoping this will show up in search now as a known issue, and others affected can add their thoughts and then we can see how many members are 'affected' and whether this should stay at the bottom of the list forever.

  11. thesacredpath
    Member

    I did an import for someone here on a large blog, and they are still fixing stuff. They started with the most recent and are working backwards.

    I have several sites to move back to wordpress.COM for someone who is wanting to simplify their online existence, and I've put them off till this is fixed. I haven't looked at the dev track, but I expect it is probably slated for the next core update, which would be 3.1.2. No telling when that will be out though.

    Contact staff about it at http://en.support.wordpress.com/contact/ .

  12. justjennifer
    Member

    WordPress.com is about to roll over to 20 million users. I imagine that the number of users trying to export and import a blog from one WordPress.com site to another is pretty small, nor do I know how many have used the change blog address option. Here, too, I suspect the numbers are pretty small.

    What I would find helpful is what you mentioned above, being able to change the blog's address to one you already have registered rather than taking a risk that the name you want isn't available. Regardless, you pointed out that you encountered problems with the change blog address option as well.

    About moving from WordPress.org to a WordPress.com site, I have a niggling memory of someone suggesting rolling back their org installation to 3.0 and then doing the export. I do not recall if this solved the problems that were encountered.

  13. justjennifer
    Member

    BTW-when I ran into the duplicate images, etc., problem, I also did a search on the forums and sent these links to Staff in my support request email

    http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/wordpress-import-creates-duplicate-images?replies=2

    http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/duplicate-image-files-in-media-library?replies=6

  14. justjennifer
    Member

    Another thread on import problem from self-hosted, apparently not resolved as the OP's WordPress.com site is still empty.

    http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/import-issue-from-31-rc2-hosted-version?replies=12

  15. justjennifer
    Member

    http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/content-transfer-issues?replies=9 is the thread that mentions the downgrade. Perhaps tsp remembers where he got that info from.

    (FWIW-It seems there may have been a confusion as to what the OP was trying to do. S/He was exporting from com to org, not the other way around.)

  16. thesacredpath
    Member

    That info on the downgrade and export from 3.0 came directly from staff when I contacted them about the issue.

  17. justjennifer
    Member

    Thanks, tsp. I also seem to remember seeing something in the forums from Staff on this as well, but of course now can't find the thread...

  18. valentlau
    Member

    That's just the problem. The dev team have lots of fun stuff to do, down comes this boring bug that everyone "suspects the numbers are pretty small" being affected.

    How would anyone know who is affected? I for one am not going to publish a broken dual media site so that someone will know the import is broken.
    Most people are not stopped dead in their tracks because they cannot use the import. Others will give up and go elsewhere.

  19. justjennifer
    Member

    How would anyone know who is affected?

    Both by the number of people posting in the forums as well as Support tickets opened.

    I guess it is about priorities or at least the squeaky wheel principle. Right now there's a problem affecting inserting images, which I think in anyone's book would be right at the top of the fix list.

  20. valentlau
    Member

    I don't know what problems you have inserting images, mine are fine. But you can be sure that it would NEVER be the case that this is the most important support ticket.

    And so it will probably NEVER be fixed.

  21. auxclass
    Member

    The import is not always smooth I moved 7 months ago and a pile of my pictures were messed up ( about 125) and some files did not move correctly - ended up spending 40++hours fixing the import - the pictures were re-sized to 0px x 0px if my memory is correctly - WordPress.COM also does not know how to handle a standard .ORG install where the old site was your-old-site/wordpress for the install - so 300 crawl errors from Google I am still fighting the address issues - and the really nice thing is that Google is digging up old Posts and files from pre-move days and they dinging me with 404 errors.

    And yes, all of the above was covered with many emails to the Staff on what blew up, so they are aware of at least some of the issues.

  22. dllh
    Happiness Gardener

    If you're still having this problem, iliodos, please reopen one of your support tickets by responding via email, provide a link to this thread, and request that the ticket be raised to my attention. I'm doing some work on the importer, and it sounds like your export might be a good test bunny for me to try. Thanks.

  23. valentlau
    Member

    I don't know how to reopen a ticket, and I've deleted all old emails since they end with 'known issue'.

    However one of my tickets were responded to recently tho I don't remember by whom. They said something about someone starting work on the importer again.

  24. valentlau
    Member

    I've put a new support ticket in, hopefully they understand what I'm asking.

  25. designsimply
    Staff

    Got it. Forwarded to @dllh. :)

  26. dllh
    Happiness Gardener

    In progress, and we'll proceed in the support ticket. Thanks!

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