LUX Content Migration is a WordPress migration plugin: export posts, pages, categories, comments, authors, custom fields and site settings from one WordPress site and import them into another – to a new server, a new domain or a rebuilt site. Install it on both sites, build one export file on the old site and import it, category by category, on the new one.
- Migrate WordPress content – posts, pages, categories, comments, authors and custom fields (ACF)
- Move site settings – general, reading, discussion, permalinks, widgets and menus
- Large sites – export files are split automatically when your hosting upload limit is small
- Safe to try – dry-run preview and rollback before and after each import
- Imports legacy WXR / XML files as well as its own format
- Multilingual – the admin screens are in English, with Korean and Japanese translations included
LUX Content Migration moves WordPress sites. It is installed on both sides of a move – the old (source) site and the new (destination) site – and covers two ways of moving:
- The whole site (with the separate Pro add-on): the database, themes, plugins, uploads and settings are packed into one backup file, downloaded to your computer, and restored on the new server – even months later. When the domain changes, every old URL in the database is rewritten to the new domain automatically, including serialized data. When only the server changes and the domain stays the same, the site comes back exactly as it was. This is the main use the plugin is built around, and it needs the Pro add-on (distributed outside WordPress.org – see the plugin’s own site).
- Only what you choose (this free plugin, no limits): posts, pages, categories, comments, authors, custom fields and media, or only the site settings, moved selectively from the old site to the new one.
What the free plugin does on its own
This free plugin is fully functional with no limits on the number of posts, pages or sites – there is no license key, no usage cap and no locked feature anywhere in this codebase.
- Content export / import: on the source site, build a self-contained export file in this plugin’s own format (.wpmpx), split automatically into numbered parts if your hosting’s upload limit is small. On the destination site, import it category by category.
- What moves: posts, pages, categories, comments (with reply/parent structure), authors (matched by username when the same login exists) and custom fields, with ACF relational IDs reconnected.
- Site settings only: general, reading and discussion settings, permalinks, widgets and menus, as a separate choice.
- Dry-run preview: see how many posts, comments and images an import will involve before anything is created.
- Rollback: undo a finished category or page import, deleting the posts it created.
- Images: images referenced in migrated content keep pointing at the old site’s URLs rather than being re-downloaded, so the old site needs to stay online for them to keep displaying.
What the Pro add-on adds
The add-on is a separate plugin that hooks into this one through standard WordPress filters and actions. This free plugin works completely on its own without it.
- Whole-site backup and restore in one file (database, themes, plugins, uploads, settings), with automatic URL rewriting when moving to a new domain and a one-click rollback after restore.
- Your current admin login is kept through the restore, so you are not logged out when the database is replaced.
- Actual image rehosting onto the new site, redirect and 404 management, background (unattended) processing and full media backup.
Good to know when moving to a new domain
Plugins or themes licensed to a single domain may not activate after the site moves to a different domain. That comes from those products’ own domain check, not from this plugin – re-license them for the new domain. Moving to the same domain on a new server usually keeps them working.
Security notes
- Uploaded .wpmpx files are verified by a fixed signature and checksum before being parsed, and legacy WXR/XML uploads are parsed with a hardened XML reader (any
<!DOCTYPE>declaration is stripped before parsing and external entity/network loading is disabled) to prevent XXE-style attacks from a malicious export file. - File uploads are validated against the request’s own upload metadata via
is_uploaded_file()and moved through the WordPress Filesystem API into a non-listable, non-executable private folder that is cleared automatically after each file is processed.
External services
This plugin does not connect to any external service. All processing (reading the export file, creating posts/pages/comments/authors, custom field reconnection) happens entirely on your own WordPress site’s server.