How are you supposed to import entire websites using CSV files? How are you supposed to clone a site you want to add?

So far I have had no success with this software. It is not user friendly and documentation leaves out details that make it impossible to follow. None of my hosts provide CSV file backups. The procedure that is outlined to import sites is fuzzy at best. First start with how do you get the complete site exported to an csv file that you can use. You don’t even cover how to do this correctly. You assume its cakewalk and it is not!!! Its not like hosting providers are giving out CSV files. Then your clone procedure is also sketchy. I am scared to use it because it may replace the site I am trying to clone. I am not a newbie, but this is madness. So many steps are missing. I have not been able to migrate not one site to MainWP yet.

The procedure that is outlined to import sites is fuzzy at best. First start with how do you get the complete site exported to an csv file that you can use. You don’t even cover how to do this correctly. You assume its cakewalk and it is not!!! Its not like hosting providers are giving out CSV files.

Please review the help document about importing sites carefully:

We never say that you need to export your sites to CSV file from your host. As clearly stated in the document:

you need to download the example CSV file from your MainWP Dashboard:

When you open the file, you will see demos to see how to properly list your child sites that need to be imported.

Then your clone procedure is also sketchy. I am scared to use it because it may replace the site I am trying to clone. I am not a newbie, but this is madness. So many steps are missing. I have not been able to migrate not one site to MainWP yet.

The clone process is explained in details here:

If it’s scary for you to try, you can always make 2 test sites and use them to try and see how the clone feature works. Once you are sure, you can try with your production sites.

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Thanks for the reply. I have tried to find a way to export an entire wordpress site as CSV–it seems this method has fallen out of favor. Probably because it doesn’t work well with modern sites that have users/members and social media components that do not back up well to CSV. Hosting providers don’t provide one and I couldn’t find a plugin still in business to do it.


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![fuzzy destandsourcenot clearlydefnd|690x388]–upload://asMICKFfokwZs1oDbfisdFSLOuO.png

Second backup & clone installed on both sites, but get message no sites with BackWPup installed. Have synced several times. I would have thought this could have been done thru MainWP–maybe it can but its not intuitive.

Third created subdomain https://media.latenitecorner.com on GoDaddy, but cannot create site. Unable to install site there. I guess I have to purchase a fresh wordpress install plugin and then port data over, don’t know.

Will have to revisit later I need something that works and is simple to use–right now looking at Dashclicks & SitebuilderBuilder. My customers don’t pay enough for me to spend countless hours on wordpress, really kinda burnt out on wordpress. Everything you do on Wordpress takes weeks to configure. I don’t believe wordpress has an out-the-box solution for managing and configuring customer websites.

Can you please verify that you have the BackWPup plugin installed on your child sites, not the MainWP BackWPup Extension? To properly install and set the MainWP BackWPup Extension, please check this help document:

This is the hosting side problem, not MainWP. You will need to contact your host support and have them check this further.

After looking through this support thread, I want to clarify a few things:

MainWP does not create websites.

After taking a quick look at those sites, it appears they are for sales and site-building. MainWP is a WordPress Manager that is not focused on sales or building websites so that I wouldn’t consider those apt comparisons.

MainWP is 100% focused on WordPress, so if you are “burnt out” on WordPress this is probably not the solution for you.

MainWP is built for managing WordPress sites, but you are trying to do other things it was not designed to do.

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