A WordPress Expert‘s Guide: How to Seamlessly Import and Export Users in 2023

As a WordPress professional managing over a dozen active sites, importing and exporting users is a critical tool in my toolkit. Whether migrating to a newly acquired site or porting customer data to a new ecommerce platform, being able to seamlessly move user bases saves enormous time and headaches.

In this comprehensive 2023 guide, I‘ll share my proven process for easily exporting users from one WordPress site and importing them into another based on extensive experience with user migrations.

Why Import and Export Users? Common WordPress Use Cases

Let‘s first examine some of the most popular use cases for importing and exporting users in WordPress:

Site Mergers and Migrations

Industry surveys indicate that 58% of sites run more than one WordPress site. When acquiring sites or consolidating multiple sites, importing users into a single unified site is essential.

Syncing Users Across Tools

Limiting data silos is a best practice. WordPress users may also exist in ecommerce platforms, membership plugins, email services, etc. Importing/exporting reduces duplication and keeps data in sync.

Seeding Test and Staging Sites

Copying production data to development and QA environments ensures testing teams have access to real user data during pre-launch. Importing users also facilitates user acceptance testing.

Comparing WordPress User Migration Plugins

There are a handful of plugins on WordPress.org that facilitate user import and export functionality. Based on experience, here is how the top options compare:

User Import Export stands out for its balance of reliability, features, and ease of use focused solely on user migration needs. Over 100,000 active installs and a 98% rating demonstrate it‘s a solid workhorse plugin for imports and exports.

The one downside is it doesn‘t handle other data like posts and settings—just users. But for pure user migration needs, I‘ve found it to be the best solution.

Step-By-Step Guide to Migrating WordPress Users

Follow my simple 3-step playbook for seamlessly migrating users from one WordPress site to another:

Step 1: Install and Activate the User Import Export Plugin

Installation is quick and easy:

1. In your WP admin, go to Plugins > Add New
2. Search for "User Import Export"
3. Install and activate the plugin

Once activated, the Import/Export menu will appear under Tools in your dashboard.

Step 2: Export Users from Old Site

Here‘s how to export your users properly:

1. Go to Tools > Import/Export
2. Switch to Export tab
3. Select filters (Role, Date Registered etc.)
4. Choose fields/data to export
5. Export Users and save output CSV

Pro Tip: Only export essential user data to protect privacy. Name, email, and username are typically adequate.

Step 3: Import Users into New Site

Now simply:

1. Go to Import tab
2. Upload your exported CSV file
3. Ensure mapping matches source/target fields
4. Check import settings (reset password, notifications, etc.)
5. Import users

The plugin smoothly handles the entire migration process for you including useful options like forced password resets and welcome emails. Really a huge time saver!

And within a few minutes you‘ve successfully migrated your users to the new site without headaches. The simplicity of a CSV import was a game changer versus manually adding users or trying complex database migrations.

Key Takeaways and Best Practices

Through many user migrations the User Import Export plugin has been a trusty tool in my toolkit. Here are some closing best practices:

• Only export minimal, essential user details in the interest of privacy
• Always reset passwords and force users to update after migration
• Use welcome emails to smooth transition to new accounts
• Limit size of batches during import to avoid timeout issues

I hope this guide gives you an expert-level overview of my proven process for easily importing and exporting WordPress users using the User Import Export plugin. Please reach out with any other questions!