Don‘t Lose Your Widgets: A WordPress Expert‘s Guide to Importing and Exporting Widget Settings

Have you ever lost your widget settings when moving a WordPress site? As a WordPress consultant with over 5 years of experience, I‘ve seen it happen too often.

But never fear – you can seamlessly export and import widget settings if you know the right steps.

Why Widget Settings Matter

Widgets are more popular than ever in WordPress. Recent data indicates over 45% of all WordPress installations actively use widgets.

They allow you to easily add extra functionality like:

• Social media feeds
• Calendars
• Recent posts
• Search bars
• Contact forms
• Menus
• Featured images
• Online stores
• Comment streams

And tons more.

Widgets enable you to customize your site‘s look and feel without coding everything from scratch.

But they do require some setup:

• Configuring settings
• Choosing colors
• Adding HTML/CSS

No one wants to redo all that work. Especially if you rely on widgets across a multi-site network.

That‘s where importing and exporting saves the day.

When To Export and Import Widgets

Here are 3 common cases where importing/exporting widget settings is useful:

1. Migrating or Cloning Sites

Moving an existing site to a new host or domain is extremely common.

Unfortunately your widgets won‘t carry over automatically during WordPress migrations. I see this trip up beginners all the time.

But if you export widget settings beforehand, you can seamlessly import them later.

It takes just a few clicks to:

1. Export widgets from old site
2. Import into new site

This also works flawlessly for "cloning" sites to create staging or development copies on your local machine.

2. Backing Up Widgets as a Safety Net

What if you want to experiment with new layouts or widget areas in your current theme?

Customizing widget zones sounds simple. But you might accidentally remove widgets you still need!

I advise all my clients to always export a full widget backup first.

If anything goes awry, simply:

1. Deactivate troublesome layouts
2. Import the widget backup

And your site gets restored to normal in 2 minutes flat.

3. Reusing Widgets on a Multi-Site Network

Running multiple sites on the same theme? Exporting/importing widget settings allows you to reuse the same configurations across all of them.

For example, say you operate 3 sites for different business locations. The homepage layouts are identical, including:

• A social media feed
• Contact form
• Testimonials
• FAQ menu
• Simple calendar

Rather than manually adding all those widgets on Sites #2 and #3, you can:

1. Setup widgets exactly how you want on Site #1
2. Export widget data
3. Import into Sites #2 & #3

Boom! Now all 3 sites share the same widget layouts without duplicating work.

How To Actually Import and Export Widgets

Hopefully I‘ve convinced you of why properly backing up widget data matters for WordPress users and developers alike.

Now let me walk through the nitty gritty steps to export and import widgets seamlessly:

As you can see, by far the easiest method is using a dedicated plugin:

Step 1: Install the Widget Importer & Exporter Plugin

First, install the Widget Importer & Exporter plugin on both WordPress sites involved:

1. In dashboard, go to Plugins > Add New
2. Search for "Widget Importer & Exporter”
3. Install and activate the plugin

No other setup or configuration is required.

Step 2: Export Widgets from Original Site

Now export widgets from the original site:

1. Go to Tools > Widget Import/Export
2. Click Export Widgets
3. Save the .wie file locally or to a cloud drive

This .wie file contains all your widget settings, ready for transport.

Step 3: Import Widgets to New Location

Finally, hop over to the destination site:

1. Return to Tools > Widget Import/Export
2. Click Import Widgets
   • Upload your .wie
   • Or copy/paste data
3. Click Import Widgets again to finish

The plugin automatically pulls in widget data and settings from the exported .wie file.

If your themes match, everything gets slotted correctly.

If themes differ, review Inactive Widgets and place them manually.

And just like that your widget configuration is copied over!

Troubleshooting Imported Widgets

During years as a WordPress consultant, I‘ve learned a few tips and tricks for smoothing the transition of imported widgets:

Inactive widgets – If widgets get imported as Inactive, verify both themes utilize similar sidebars and widget areas. You may need to configure the new theme to access all widgets.

Conflicts – Extremely rare, but occasionally imported widgets cause conflicts. If issues arise, rename old widgets upon import.

Styling oddities – Importing can scramble some CSS styling rules. Double check colors, spacing, sizing etc.

Outside of those scenarios – the Widget Import & Export plugin makes migration dead simple!

I hope this guide gives you total confidence to safely reuse widget data across any WordPress site. Let me know if you have any other questions!