Export / Import Meta Box Custom Post Types with Google Sheets

In this tutorial, we will show you how to export and import Meta Box custom post types with Google Sheets.

You’ll see how to connect your WordPress site to your Google Sheets account, how to export your Meta Box custom post types to Google Sheets, and finally, how to import custom post types from a Google Sheet into WordPress.

In previous tutorials, we have shown you how to bulk edit Meta Box custom post types in a spreadsheet and how to export and import custom post types using CSV files.

We will use the WP Sheet Editor plugin. It allows you to bulk edit Meta Box custom post types in a spreadsheet.

We will also use the Google Sheets Sync service. It allows you to connect your WordPress site to your Google Sheets account to export and import content.

Follow the steps in the sections below to export and import custom post types with Google Sheets.

1- View your Meta Box custom post types in a spreadsheet

For this example, we have added a custom post type called “Books” using the Meta Box plugin, so we need to generate a spreadsheet to view and manage our custom post type.

We need to go to WP Sheet Editor → Setup spreadsheet.

Once there, select the post type and click on Save to go to the next step.

Now we need to select the columns that we want to display in the spreadsheet and click on Save.

After that, you’ll see a spreadsheet containing your Meta Box custom post type. Every row is a post of that post type and every column is a field.

2- Connect WordPress and Google Sheets

When you subscribe to the Google Sheets Sync service, you will get a helper plugin that will allow you to connect your website with your Google account, the Google API, and the WP Sheet Editor API.

You can follow this installation and configuration guide to learn how to connect WordPress to Google.

3- Export Meta Box custom post types to Google Sheets

In this section, we will see step by step how to export our Meta Box custom post types to Google Sheets.

We need to start by opening the Export tool.

Next, we need to select the following values in the Export tool to export our Meta Box custom post types to Google Sheets:

• What columns do you want to export: Select the columns (fields) you want to export.
• Which rows do you want to export: You can export all rows, all rows from a search, or all rows that you have manually selected in the spreadsheet.
• What app will you use to edit this file: Google Sheets
• Name of this export: We can add a name for this export in this field, and the Google Sheet will inherit that name
• Click on Start new export.

Once the export process is complete, you’ll see the View Google Sheet link. If you click on it, you’ll open the Google Sheet that was generated.

4- View and manage Meta Box custom post types in Google Sheets

After exporting the Meta Box custom post type to Google Sheets, you can edit the data or add new data using Google Sheets. You can add team members to add and edit data in Google Sheets.

After that, you can proceed to import your Meta Box custom post types data from Google Sheets into WordPress.

5- Import Meta Box custom post types from Google Sheets into WordPress

Our Google Sheets Sync service allows you to easily import data from Google Sheets into WordPress.

In this case, we will export Meta Box custom post types from Google Sheets.

Before you import the data, you need to take some things into account:

1. To protect your privacy, our Google Sheets Sync service doesn’t read files that have not been created with the service itself.
2. In other words, the service doesn’t recognize files that were not first exported from WordPress to Google Sheets using the service.
3. This means that we don’t have any access to other files on your Google account; not even to other Google Sheets files.
4. Therefore, to import a Google Sheets file, you’ll need to first export the info.
5. Once you’ve exported it, you can edit existing data or create new data in Google Sheets.

First, open the Import tool.

Second, select the Google Sheets file you want to import:

• Source: Google Sheets
• Google Sheet file: Select the file you’ll import here. If you don’t find it, click on “refresh”.
• Click on Next.

Third, select the columns you will import from Google Sheets into WordPress.

You can Import all the columns or Select individual columns to import.

Fourth, select how you want to import the data.

In this example, we will Update existing items, ignore new items, so we need to match the rows in Google Sheets with the fields on WordPress. We’ll use the ID field.

Click on Next.

Finally, you need to click on The preview is fine, start import.

Export and import Meta Box content with Google Sheets!

With Google Sheets Sync, you can connect your WordPress site to your Google Sheets account to export and import Meta Box custom post types. You can collaborate with your team to manage your Meta Box content in Google Sheets.