How to Split Large XML Files in WordPress (Free Tool)

Setting up a new blog or moving your WordPress site can be exciting, but sometimes you might hit a frustrating roadblock: your WordPress export file is too big to import into your new website.

We’ve seen this problem many times when setting up blog sites for our readers. It usually happens when your site has grown big, with lots of posts and pages. Your hosting company only lets you upload files up to a certain size, and sometimes your export file is just too large.

But don’t worry! We’ve found an easy, free fix that doesn’t need any coding skills. In this article, we’ll show you how to split large XML files in WordPress so that you can import all your content without any trouble.

When to Split Large XML Files in WordPress

When moving your blog from WordPress.com to WordPress.org or moving content from a self-hosted WordPress website to a new host or server, you will need to export your WordPress content.

WordPress allows you to export your entire WordPress website as a single XML file that contains all of your posts, pages, comments, custom fields, categories, and tags. This is known as a WXR file and stands for WordPress Extended RSS.

However, sometimes, you may find that this file size is larger than the upload limit allowed by your WordPress hosting provider.

If the XML file size is too large, then you will see an error message, and you will not be able to import your website data into the new WordPress installation using the default WordPress importer. This limit can vary depending on your hosting provider and plan.

One way to solve this problem is to increase the maximum file upload size in WordPress. However, sometimes, the file is still too large even after the increase.

Technically, you can also ask your web hosting company to temporarily increase the file size limit, but a lot of shared hosting companies will not allow it.

So, the only other option you have is to split the XML file into smaller files manually, which is hard work.

Luckily, we’ve found an easy online tool that can help you automatically split large WordPress XML files. Plus, this XML splitter is completely free to use.

With that being said, let’s take a look at how to split large XML files in WordPress, step by step.

How to Split Large XML Files in WordPress

Once you have exported your WordPress site to a single XML file, you need to open the Free WordPress WXR File Splitter Tool website.

This platform is the best WordPress XML splitter tool, as it is designed to easily divide a large WordPress export file into small chunks.

Once there, you can upload your XML file to the free tool by dragging it onto the area labeled ‘Click or drag a file to this area to upload’. Alternatively, you can click the ‘WXR File’ button and then select the XML file.

After that, you need to move the ‘New file size’ slider to your website’s maximum upload size or smaller. The goal is to create multiple files that are small enough to be uploaded to your host without surpassing the limits.

When you are ready, you need to press the ‘Submit’ button. Your large file will be split into smaller files of the correct size.

Finally, you will need to press the ‘Download’ button to download the files to the default download location on your computer. The files will be contained in a single file, which will need to be unzipped so that you can import them into your new WordPress website.

Make sure to import the files in the correct order to ensure that all your content is imported correctly.

Once you have imported your XML files, you may want to:

• Read this WordPress migration checklist to ensure all necessary steps have been taken.
• Export all of your previous WordPress URLs in plain text.
• Import external images from your previous website to WordPress.
• Check for broken links and implement redirects if needed.
• Enable WordPress debug mode to fix site errors.
• Import your previous website’s widget settings into your new site.
• Remove the welcome panel in your WordPress dashboard.

We hope this tutorial helped you learn how to split large XML files in WordPress. You may also want to learn the hidden secret options panel within your WordPress admin panel and our expert picks of the best WordPress activity log and tracking plugins.

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