This is the import run itself. The preparation checks and the troubleshooting live on their own pages, so what follows is the sequence and the choices inside it.
Take a backup before you start, because there is no undo for an import.
An import writes posts, pages, media, menus and settings in one pass, and a site with existing content has no way back to what it looked like an hour ago except a backup. Most hosts have a one click backup; if yours does not, a plugin export of the database is enough.
#Running the import
Open the theme dashboard
Find the theme menu in the WordPress sidebar and open the Demo Import page.
See which demos you have
The list shows what your current package can install. Premium demos need the Pro plugin and an active license; free demos need neither and have their own walkthrough.
Choose a demo
Pick one. Importing two demos onto the same site produces a mixture rather than a choice.
Choose the data types
This is the part worth slowing down for. You are not obliged to take everything: select only the components you want and the rest of your site is left alone.
Start it
Click Start and leave the page open until it finishes. Closing the tab interrupts the run.
Read the final status
The importer reports what it did. Read it rather than assuming, because a partial success is reported as a partial success.
#Partial imports
Selecting data types is how you take a piece of a demo instead of all of it.
That matters in two situations. On a site that already has content, importing only the theme settings gives you the demo look without its posts. And when you only need the layout of one page, importing that page on its own is a smaller operation than a full demo.
- Content
Posts, pages and the demo entries.
- Media
The images. The largest and slowest part of any import.
- Menus and widgets
Navigation and sidebar arrangement.
- Theme settings
Colors, typography, layout options. This is the set that makes your site look like the demo.
#While it runs
The importer works through the set in order and shows progress as it goes. Media takes the longest.
Do not reload the page, do not navigate away, and do not start a second import in another tab.
If the run stops, it can be started again: the importer recognizes what it already created and continues rather than duplicating it.
#When it finishes
Some things need one manual save before they resolve correctly, permalinks in particular, and the after-import page walks through the rest in the order worth checking them.
#Common questions
Can I choose only some pages of a demo?
Not from a full demo import, though importing individual pages is a separate mode on the same screen and is built for exactly that.
The demo I want is greyed out
It is a premium demo and either the license is not active or the Pro plugin is not installed, and the row itself says which of the two it is waiting for.
Can I run an import twice?
Yes, the importer finds what already exists and does not duplicate it, which is exactly what makes an interrupted run recoverable rather than a mess.
Will the import overwrite my homepage?
If you include content and settings then it sets its own front page, so deselect those two data types when you want to keep yours.
The import stopped partway or showed an error
Note where it stopped and what it said, then run it again, because a second pass continues from where it left off and clears most interruptions on its own. If it stops at the same point twice, the demo import troubleshooting article maps each stopping point to its cause, and a run that always dies during media is almost always a timeout or a memory ceiling rather than a broken demo.
#Still stuck
Open a support ticket with the demo name, the data types you selected, and where the run stopped.
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