Export & Import — Move Your Data Between Sites

Move everything URL Shortify stores from one WordPress site to another in a single file — links, groups, tags, custom domains, UTM presets, tracking pixels, click history and your plugin settings.

Use it to move from staging to production, migrate to a new host or domain, or set up a second site with the same configuration, without touching the database by hand.

PRO Feature

Export / Import is available in URL Shortify PRO, and only administrators can run it.

Where to Find It

Go to URL Shortify → Tools → Export / Import.

The page has two sections: Export at the top, Import below it.

What Is Included

Data	Included
Links, with all their settings and rules	Yes
Groups and tags, and their link relationships	Yes
Custom domains	Yes
UTM presets	Yes
Tracking pixels	Yes
Auto link keywords	Yes
Link meta	Yes
Click history and click rotations	Optional
Favourite links	Yes
REST API keys	Optional, excluded by default
Plugin settings	Optional

Exporting

Go to URL Shortify → Tools → Export / Import.
Choose what to include:
- Everything — links, groups, tags, settings and click statistics.
- Without click statistics — a much smaller file. Recommended for busy sites.
- Choose what to include — tick individual data types. Each shows how many rows it holds.
Leave Compress the file (gzip) ticked unless you want to read the file yourself. Compression usually reduces the size by a factor of ten or more.
Click Create Export File.

A progress bar shows how many rows have been written. Large sites are processed in batches, so the export cannot time out.

When it finishes you get:

the number of rows and the file size,
a SHA256 checksum you can copy, to verify the file after downloading it,
a Download button.

Export files are stored in a protected folder on your server and are deleted automatically after 24 hours. Download the file before then, or simply run the export again.

Importing

1. Upload the file

In the Import section, choose the .json or .json.gz file you exported from the other site and click Upload & Preview.

Nothing is written to your database at this stage.

2. Review the preview

URL Shortify reads the whole file and shows you:

Rows in file for each type of data.
Already on this site — how many entries would clash, with a few examples so you can see which ones.
Warnings, such as a different link prefix between the two sites, or the presence of API keys.
An integrity check. Every export carries a digest of its own contents, so a file that was truncated during download or edited afterwards is detected here — before anything is imported.

3. Choose how to import

When an entry already exists here

Option	What happens
Keep what is already here (default)	The existing entry and its statistics are left untouched, and the imported one is skipped.
Update it with the imported version	The existing entry is overwritten with the imported values, and its related data is imported too.
Import as a new link with a new slug	A colliding link is imported as a brand new link with an automatically generated slug. Nothing existing is changed.

Additional options

Import click statistics — bring the click history across. Turn it off for a faster, lighter import.
Import plugin settings — apply the source site's URL Shortify settings.
Import REST API keys — off by default. Only enable this if you want the other site's integrations to be able to write to this site.
Delete all existing URL Shortify data first — see below.

4. Run it

Click Start Import. Progress is shown as rows are written, in batches, so the import cannot time out.

When it finishes you get a summary table showing, for each type of data, how many rows were Added, Updated, Skipped and Failed.

Making an Exact Copy

Tick Delete all existing URL Shortify data first to replace this site's data entirely rather than merging.

Before anything is removed, URL Shortify creates a full backup of your current data and offers it as a download link in the result summary. If the import turns out to be wrong, you can import that backup to get back to where you were.

When the destination tables start out empty — which is the case after this option, and on a fresh site — links keep their original IDs, so the copy is identical to the source.

How Links Stay Connected

Every link is related to other records: its groups, its tags, its clicks, its tracking pixels, its custom domain.

On an empty site, the original IDs are preserved and everything lines up exactly as it did on the source site.
When merging into a site that already has data, imported records get new IDs and every relationship is rewritten to match — including the custom domain and tracking pixels stored inside a link's rules, and the default domain saved in your settings.

Either way you do not need to fix anything up by hand afterwards.

Things to Know

Slugs travel unchanged, so your short links keep working on the new site as long as the domain is the same. If the two sites use a different link prefix, the preview warns you; imported links continue to work, but new links will use the destination site's prefix.
Upload limit. Very large exports can exceed the maximum upload size your server allows — the Import section shows what that limit is. Export without click statistics to produce a much smaller file, or ask your host to raise the limit.
Favourite links are stored per WordPress user, so they only line up if both sites share the same user IDs.
Settings that point at a specific page, such as the password protection page, refer to IDs from the source site and may need to be re-selected after importing.
Export packages contain your API secrets. They are stored in a protected folder and served only to logged-in administrators — but treat any file you download as sensitive.
This is a single-site tool. It does not export a whole multisite network in one go.

Troubleshooting

"This is not a URL Shortify migration file." The file is not an export package, or was replaced during download. Export it again.

"The contents of this file do not match its integrity marker." The file was truncated or modified after it was exported. Download it again rather than importing it.

"This file has no integrity marker." The export did not finish, usually because it was interrupted. Run the export again.

The file is too large to upload. Export again with Without click statistics selected, or raise the upload limit on the destination server.

How to Export Links & Clicks Data — CSV export for spreadsheets and reporting
Import Short Links via CSV
One-Click Import from Other Plugins