Problem

You want to make a backup of a weblog's entries, comments and TrackBacks.

Solution

Click the Export Entries tab of the Import/Export screen which can be reached via the Import/Export button on the Weblog Toolbar.

Discussion

Exporting your entries from Movable Type allows you to keep personal backups of your blog entries for safekeeping. This exported content is suitable for importing back into the system via the import mechanism. (See Importing Weblog Content.) In addition to exporting your entries for backup purposes, you can also use this to move your content between systems.

To export the entries and comments of a weblog, click the Import/Export button on the Weblog Toolbar. On the Export Entries tab is the link "Export Entries From Weblog." Clicking this link will generate an export file of your content. Depending on the size of your weblog this may take some time to download.

Import/export limitations

Unfortunately, at this time, the Movable Type import/export format is considered a "lossy" format, meaning that if you perform and export, delete all of your entries/comments/TrackBacks and reimport, certain data will be lost.

The data not handled by the import/export format relates to features introduced in and since Movable Type 3.0. These are:

• Entry basename
• Comment/TrackBack moderation status
• Authenticated commenter data (e.g. TypeKey username) and status.

We apologize for the inconvenience and will be addressing these shortcomings in a future version of Movable Type. In the meantime, the best way to achieve a lossless transfer is to use your database's export functionality. See the "backup/restore" topics in the Installation and Upgrade chapter of this documentation for details.