I’ve run an number of MT to WordPress imports over the past few weeks. Almost all of them, I was importing MT into WordPress version 2.0. And there is a bug in the process.
Posts an authors imported just fine.
Comments and trackbacks on the other hand? They do import - but you won’t see them. Within your WP admin panel - you won’t see them in the Manage –> Comments area, nor will you see them in the moderation queue.
However, if you look in the database - they are, indeed there.
The comments do get imported - however the comment_approved field database table is blank. They are not marked as approved, unapproved or spam - it’s just blank. Unassigned.
Quick fix? Run a SQL Query via phpMyAdmin (or your choice.) Here’s what did it for me:
UPDATE wp_comments SET comment_approved = ‘1′ WHERE comment_approved = ”
Fixed it right up - all comments and trackbacks are present an accounted for.
It’s definitely a bug, though, that needs fixing. I can’t tell you how many clients I do MT to WP imports for on a regular basis. Ugh!
12:02 am on January 14th, 2006
Thank you, ma’am!
2:07 pm on January 16th, 2006
But of course, this isn’t a WP issue. It’s a mysql issue, didn’t you get the memo?
5:20 pm on January 16th, 2006
I can only say . . . pfft!
10:24 pm on January 17th, 2006
Can you give explicit instructions for those boneheads among us?
10:35 pm on January 17th, 2006
Gaaah!
I stumbled upon your bit o’ code hoping against hope…but for naught. I keep getting:
“#1054 - Unknown column ‘‘’’ in ‘where clause’”
Oh, god…I did not want to learn how to code *this* way.
Sigh…
10:55 pm on January 17th, 2006
communicatrix: You may want to try straight typing it into your sql editor. If you’re cutting and pasting - the curly quotes might be transferring over, and they should be ticks, not curlies. Just a thought.
Johnny Nemo: you just take that sql statement above and place it in your sql editor and run the query. Most hosts give you the ability to work with your database via phpMyAdmin, or some other MSYQL tool. If you aren’t familiar with those tools, I can’t help you. Try dropping your webhost and email for assistance.
2:04 am on January 21st, 2006
Hmm… excellent fix.
But I do have this strange anomaly.
Comments show up when i request the page…. but the index says comments 0 and in the admin interface, it says comments 0 on the manage post page, but it shows the comments in the manage comments dialog… not sure whats up there. Any ideas?
7:38 am on January 22nd, 2006
[...] Changing to WordPress I’m sick of dealing with the ubiquitous comment spam in MovableType, so I’ve moved the site to WordPress. All the old posts have been imported, and it looks like all the internal linking to categories, date-based archives, and individual posts are now working correctly. Comments have now been imported thanks to a great post by Just a Girl. All the permalinks (except the category archive pages, which I’m not too worried about) match the old MovableType links so the current Google links now work. The feed seems to be working correctly - let me know in the comments if you experience any issues with the site or the feed. Expect some weirdness over the next few days while I complete the move. I’ve started working on the design. Step one was to switch to the Gila theme, designed by Haran and converted for WordPress by John Hesch. [...]
6:34 pm on January 24th, 2006
Oh, thank you thank you thank you!! I decided to convert today and nearly had a cow when the comments didn’t transfer. You just saved my butt.
I fixed the No Comments displaying even when there were comments by posting a new comment to each entry and then deleting them. But that’s not a very time efficient way to do it if you have a large blog.
12:02 am on January 25th, 2006
zro - not sure without tinkering around in the guts of the site and looking at your php coding. The 2.0 upgrade is a little buggy, to be sure . . word has it that yet another upgrade is forthcoming soon.
Shawna - I’m happy that it worked for you. I was so relieved when it worked out for me - - I converted one blog that had over 3000 comments on it! Phew!
1:26 am on January 25th, 2006
I did the above, and now the comments are showing up - but there is still one problem!
The posts comment counter still shows zero! In the table wp_posts, there is a comment_count field, which is set at zero for all entries, though they have comments - how can I sync this with the actual comment count?
8:25 am on January 25th, 2006
KD, are you running an older version of Spam Karma?
The comments db table changed with WP 2.0, and a comment_count field has been added. Older versions of Spam Karma aren’t aware of this, so doesn’t update the comment count properly.
You can run the SK2 Compatiblity Plugin, then upgrade to the latest version of Spam Karma (2.1).
9:56 am on January 25th, 2006
Hi, thanks for the help!
I’m on a completely new install of WP 2.0, with no plugins.
9:56 am on January 30th, 2006
Hi,
I’m the author of the oddly named SK2-WP2Compatibility plugin mentioned by Wench above. Just a note to let everyone know that you no longer need this SK2 plugin.
Simply upgrade to the latest version of Spam Karma and that will fix comment counts for you. No plugin required
6:25 pm on February 4th, 2006
[...] It took way longer than I estimated to switch from miserable Yahoo Small Business to a new domain with my main host, Alentus.com. Most of the time was spent translating a painfully hacked index.htm/style.css from Movable Type into the same for WordPress 2.0. Not fun. Then there was the joy of exporting and importing posts and (hopefully) comments. Finally had to resort to importing from the RSS feed, post by post, to get this to work. Hopefully, once I resolve how to get into phpmyadmin and I apply this hack, the comments will also show. [...]
2:05 pm on February 26th, 2006
God bless you ma’am!!
7:23 pm on March 31st, 2006
I’m clueless. I reinstalled WP and though I saved my posts/comments I can’t import them.
I guess I’m trying to say this is a new install and I would like to import my prior WP posts & comments.
Fab site!
3:27 am on August 3rd, 2006
This site is one of the best I have ever seen, wish I had one like this.
10:06 am on September 17th, 2006
I have never had much luck importing anything to anything.
Just for once it would be great to have a tool that worked as stated
4:52 am on March 30th, 2007
Hello
Bye