Title: Converting Back Last modified: August 18, 2016 --- # Converting Back * jmsecc * [21 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/converting-back/) * How would one convert BACK to MT once you’ve converted to WP? I haven’t done the actual conversion yet (although I DO have a testblog set up with WP). I’m just concerned because there seems to be absolutely no way to export from WP and there doesn’t seem to be a tool written for MT (yet…) to do it. Is it a big, fat pain in the rear-end to convert back if one doesn’t like how WP works on a day-to-day basis? Viewing 9 replies - 1 through 9 (of 9 total) * [Mark (podz)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/podz/) * (@podz) * [21 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/converting-back/#post-88065) * There isn’t a tool as far as I know. Have you tried the MT forums ? * Thread Starter Anonymous * [21 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/converting-back/#post-88167) * yeah, I’ve posted a similiar question in their forum… shouldn’t WP have an export function? * [Mark (podz)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/podz/) * (@podz) * [21 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/converting-back/#post-88171) * You can export the database using either phpmyadmin or LL’s One Click Backup. This subject has been kicked over before. * Thread Starter Anonymous * [21 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/converting-back/#post-88285) * 1) I know you can export the database, but that doesn’t help at all to get the actual POSTS into MT. 2) could you provide a link to the previous discussion( s) instead of being sarcastic? I’m sorry I’m wasting your time, but since I did a search on “Converting” “MT” “movabletype” and several other keywords BEFORE posting to the forum, I figured I would just ask the question directly in the hope that someone would either point me at the discussion(s) that the search script didn’t pick up when I searched or else help me with my question. Maybe I’ve set my sights too high on the whole “user-community” being helpful thing here at the WP forums…. perhaps I’ll check the MT forums. thank you. * [Mark (podz)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/podz/) * (@podz) * [21 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/converting-back/#post-88293) * I wasn’t being sarcastic ! In a nutshell: WordPress developers wrote all the tools for people wanting to import their blogs to WP. It was in their interest to do so. No other blog tool authors wrote tools so that, for instance, someone moving from MT could import into WP. It just didn’t happen. If WordPress devs are going to write an export tool, then that takes time, time which could otherwise be spent on enhancing WP. WP is free. MT is commercial. My view is that if SixApart want to draw people in, then they need to write the tools for people to use. WordPress code is open source – they can see exactly what to do, and how to do it. As far as I know, not a single blog tool offers export scripts that will precisely fit other blog programs – why should WP be any different ? * [lbessant](https://wordpress.org/support/users/lbessant/) * (@lbessant) * [21 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/converting-back/#post-88303) * (First post, treat me gently…) I’m in a similar position. I’ve been running my weblog on MT and I’m now evaluating WP. So far, I like what I see. But the question about exporting posts in a readily usable format seems to me to be a perfectly valid one. This is something that MT gets right – it’s very simple to export all posts and comments into a text file that other systems (such as WP) can be made to import very easily. It’s also useful when testing new versions of MT to be able to quickly import posts from a live weblog into a test one – which a database backup is not altogether useful for, given schema differences in newer versions. This isn’t (to me) about specifically exporting in a format friendly to MT, or any particular package, but about having a plain text backup of one’s work. Someone who knows what they’re doing with PHP and MySQL ought to be able to code this – perhaps it’s a task for a plugin writer rather than the core developers, who as you say, need to concentrate on the core of WP. I’ve seen the question asked a few times (and I’ve been looking at WP for less than a week….), so it probably is something which a significant number of users would benefit from. Sadly, my cluefulness in the PHP/MySQL area is not likely to rise high enough for me to write anything like this in the forseeable future. Anyone else care to give it a shot? * [Christine](https://wordpress.org/support/users/christine/) * (@christine) * [21 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/converting-back/#post-88650) * > My view is that if SixApart want to draw people in, then they need to write > the tools for people to use. WordPress code is open source – they can see exactly > what to do, and how to do it. * MT has done this. They wrote – from the beginning – tools to import *AND* export data. I agree with others that this is a sorely missing feature from WP. There should be some way to export the data out in case you need a backup, or in case you want to leave WP. And while I realize it is open source, so people *can* develop these things, well… we’re not all developers. Some of us are just common, average users. * Moderator [James Huff](https://wordpress.org/support/users/macmanx/) * (@macmanx) * [21 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/converting-back/#post-88651) * [http://www.tamba2.org.uk/wordpress/backup/](http://www.tamba2.org.uk/wordpress/backup/) Those are the instructions to backup/export your WordPress database and restore/ import it. There’s also an easy-to-use plugin around here somewhere, but you’ll have to search for it. * [Christine](https://wordpress.org/support/users/christine/) * (@christine) * [21 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/converting-back/#post-88652) * That works great for backing up your database to restore it in WP, but it doesn’t help if you wanted to move to another CMS, unfortunately. Viewing 9 replies - 1 through 9 (of 9 total) The topic ‘Converting Back’ is closed to new replies. * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/) * 9 replies * 5 participants * Last reply from: [Christine](https://wordpress.org/support/users/christine/) * Last activity: [21 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/converting-back/#post-88652) * Status: not resolved ## Topics ### Topics with no replies ### Non-support topics ### Resolved topics ### Unresolved topics ### All topics