How to Easily Split Overly Large XML Files for WordPress Imports

Migrating a WordPress website involves exporting all of its content as an XML file and then importing that file into a new site. But if your XML file is too large, it can cause errors and prevent the import from completing successfully.

In this guide, I‘ll show you how to use a free online tool to split those massive XML files into smaller, more manageable chunks. Whether you‘re moving to a new host or going from WordPress.com to WordPress.org, being able to break apart large XML files is a crucial skill for any webmaster.

After 15 years of working with WordPress, I‘ve helped dozens of sites through tricky migrations. Follow these best practices and you‘ll be able to import XML files of virtually any size.

Understanding XML and WXR Files

To grasp why XML files need splitting, you first need to understand what they actually are.

XML stands for Extensible Markup Language. It‘s a format that structures content using tags and allows that data to be imported between systems.

WordPress uses a specific XML format called WXR (WordPress eXtended RSS) to export site content. This single WXR file contains all your posts, pages, images, plugins, themes, widgets, menus, and custom settings.

Here‘s a peek at what a WXR file looks like:

<item>
  <title>My Blog Post</title>
  <link>https://example.com/blog-post</link>
  <pubDate>Fri, 22 Oct 2021 15:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
  <dc:creator><![CDATA[Admin]]></dc:creator>
  <guid isPermaLink="false">https://example.com/blog-post</guid>
  <description></description>
  <content:encoded><![CDATA[The content of my blog post]]></content:encoded>

  <excerpt:encoded><![CDATA[A small snippet of the content]]></excerpt:encoded>
  <wp:post_id>567</wp:post_id>
  <wp:post_date><![CDATA[2021-10-22 15:00:00]]></wp:post_date>
  <wp:post_date_gmt><![CDATA[2021-10-22 15:00:00]]></wp:post_date_gmt>

  <wp:comment_status><![CDATA[open]]></wp:comment_status>
  <wp:ping_status><![CDATA[open]]></wp:ping_status>
  <wp:post_name><![CDATA[blog-post]]></wp:post_name>
  <wp:status><![CDATA[publish]]></wp:status>
  <wp:post_parent>0</wp:post_parent>
  <wp:menu_order>0</wp:menu_order>
  <wp:post_type><![CDATA[post]]></wp:post_type>

  <wp:postmeta>
    <wp:meta_key><![CDATA[_thumbnail_id]]></wp:meta_key>
    <wp:meta_value><![CDATA[568]]></wp:meta_value>
  </wp:postmeta>

</item>

As you can see, it contains all the post data formatted with XML tags like <title> and details like the post status, content, date, and more.

Now imagine that structure repeated for every single post, page, media item, and custom post type across your entire site. Those files get big fast!

The Problem With Overly Large XML Files

Many managed WordPress hosts place limits on the maximum file upload size, often around 50-100MB. This helps prevent resource strain on their servers.

The limits can cause trouble when importing a large XML file produced by the WordPress exporter. If the file exceeds the cap set by your new host, you‘ll get errors when trying to upload and import it.

To give some real-world examples, here are typical XML file sizes for sites of different scales:

• Small site with 50 posts – 25MB
• Medium site with 500 posts – 250MB
• Large site with 5000 posts – 2.5GB

As you can see, it doesn‘t take much content before XML files grow too large for many hosts to handle. Even a moderate site with a few hundred posts can easily surpass the limits.

There are a couple ways to deal with this:

• Ask your new host to temporarily raise the limit. While possible, most managed WordPress hosts won‘t allow this on shared servers.

• Manually split the XML file into smaller chunks. This allows each piece to stay under the size cap and import successfully.

Let‘s look at how to easily split your XML files using a handy free online tool.

How To Use the Free XML File Splitter

The easiest way to break apart your XML file is with the XMLSplicer online tool. It offers a quick way to divide large exports into manageable pieces.

Here is the step-by-step process:

1. Export your WordPress site content to a WXR XML file using the built-in exporter under Tools > Export.

2. Visit the XMLSplicer website and upload your XML file by dragging it into the designated box or clicking to browse your files.

3. Look up your new host‘s maximum file upload size and adjust the "New File Size" slider on XMLSplicer to a number lower than the limit. For example, set it to 50MB if your limit is 100MB.

4. Click the "Submit" button to split your large XML file into multiple smaller XML files based on the size you set.

5. Once processing finishes, click "Download" to save the split XML files in a ZIP archive on your computer.

6. Unzip the downloaded archive and you‘ll find all of your XML chunks ready for import!

And that‘s it! With just a few clicks, your giant XML file is split up into pieces that won‘t trigger any import errors or size warnings.

The XMLSplicer tool works fast, is completely free, and does all the tedious XML splitting work for you automatically.

Importing Your Split XML Files Into WordPress

Now that your XML exports have been broken down into smaller chunks, it‘s time to get them into WordPress.

The process for importing the files is exactly the same as if it were a single large file:

1. Install and activate the WordPress Importer plugin on your new WordPress site. This provides the XML import functionality.

2. Go to Tools > Import in the WordPress admin dashboard.

3. Run the WordPress importer once for each of your XML files, choosing the appropriate importer such as posts, pages, etc.

4. Repeat the import process until all of your XML chunks have been successfully pulled into WordPress.

Some tips for a smooth import process:

• Use a staging or development site initially to test the imports and workflow. Once it‘s working, do it on your production site.

• Install a migration plugin like All-in-One WP Migration to transfer content instead of re-importing.

• Backup both your old and new sites so you can restore if anything gets lost or corrupted.

As long as you stay within your host‘s file size limits, you should be able to import an unlimited amount of XML data using multiple files.

Making WordPress XML Imports Easy

Importing a WordPress site is often essential, whether you‘re switching hosts or migrating from WordPress.com to a self-hosted install.

The built-in WordPress exporter produces XML files containing all of your site‘s content. But if those files get too large, they can be difficult or impossible to import.

Using the free XMLSplicer tool allows you to easily split any XML file into smaller chunks. Each one stays under your host‘s size limit so you can efficiently import your WordPress data without errors.

Splitting XML files takes just a few clicks, but it will save you hours of headaches when migrating sites. For seamless WordPress imports, be sure to break up your exports into manageable pieces.