How to Migrate Recipes to Another WordPress Site

If you’re moving your recipes from one WordPress site to another, Recipe Card Blocks PRO provides a lossless migration method using WordPress XML. This preserves 100% of your recipe data — no manual mapping or data loss.

Why Use WordPress XML Instead of JSON/CSV?

Recipe Card Blocks stores all recipe data inside Gutenberg block attributes in the post content. The WordPress XML export captures this raw block content exactly as-is, including:

• Every recipe field and setting
• Ingredient amounts, units, groups, and links
• Direction groups and step images
• Nutrition data
• Display settings (which fields are shown/hidden)
• Recipe card style and color preferences
• Featured images and media attachments

JSON and CSV exports are designed for interoperability with other systems — they extract the most common fields into a portable format, but some per-recipe display settings and rich formatting may not survive the round-trip.

Step-by-Step Migration

On the source site (where recipes currently are):

1. Go to Recipe Cards > Import & Export > Export Recipes
2. Under “Recommended: Recipe Migration”, click Export as WordPress XML
3. Save the downloaded .xml file

On the destination site (where you want to import):

1. Make sure Recipe Card Blocks PRO is installed and activated
2. Install and activate the WordPress Importer plugin (available from Plugins > Add New, search for “WordPress Importer”)
3. Go to Recipe Cards > Import & Export > Import Recipes
4. In the Import from WordPress XML section, drag and drop your .xml file or click Choose File
5. Click Upload XML and Import
6. On the next screen:

• Assign authors (or import as the current user)
• Check “Download and import file attachments” — this is important for importing recipe images

1. Click Submit

Your recipes will be imported with all their data intact. Recipe images will be downloaded from the source site and uploaded to the destination site’s media library.

Troubleshooting

Images not importing?

• Make sure you checked “Download and import file attachments” during import
• Verify the source site is accessible (images can be downloaded from it)
• If images still show the old domain URL, the plugin will automatically attempt to sideload them — this happens via the import_end hook after WordPress finishes the import

WordPress Importer not available?

The WordPress XML import requires the official WordPress Importer plugin. If it’s not installed, the import page will show a notice with a link to install it. Go to Plugins > Add New and search for “WordPress Importer”.

Want to export all content, not just recipes?

The XML export button in Recipe Card Blocks exports only recipes. To export your entire site (posts, pages, recipes, media, etc.), go to Tools > Export in your WordPress dashboard and select “All content”.