Meta Box Plugin – Export and Import Custom Post Types (CSV)

In this tutorial, we will show you how to export and import custom post types created with the Meta Box plugin, using an intuitive spreadsheet on WordPress.

Related tutorials:

• Bulk edit Meta Box post types in a spreadsheet
• Export and import Meta Box post types with Google Sheets

When you add new custom post types to your WordPress site with the Meta Box plugin, you may need to bulk edit thousands of posts, as well as export and import posts data.

However, by now you’ve probably figured out that WordPress doesn’t offer the tools you need to save many hours editing hundreds or thousands of posts. The search is only by keyword, and often doesn’t return the results you’re looking for. The bulk actions are too limited and you can get server errors if you try to edit hundreds or thousands of items. Not to mention the need to export or import data from your custom post types using CSV files.

That’s why, in this guide we will use the WP Sheet Editor plugin. It allows you to view and manage your WordPress posts, pages and custom post types in a spreadsheet. You can bulk edit hundreds of posts, use any field as a search filter, edit items in the spreadsheet, as well as export and import posts data with a few clicks.

After installing and activating the plugin, you need to follow the steps in the sections below in order to export and import custom posts data.

1- Set up a spreadsheet for your Meta Box custom post types

You need to generate a spreadsheet for your Meta Box custom post type.

For this, go to WP Sheet Editor → Setup spreadsheet.

Once there, select the custom post type you want to edit in a spreadsheet.

In this example, we have created a custom post type called “Books” using the Meta Box plugin, so we can select that post type and click on Save.

Now we need to select the columns we want to display in the spreadsheet.

If you don’t want to display a specific column in the spreadsheet, you can move it from the Enabled to the Disabled side.

Once you’re done, click on Save.

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

Here’s a tutorial where you can learn how to bulk edit your custom post types using the spreadsheet.

2- Export Meta Box custom post types to CSV

Let’s see how to export your Meta Box custom post types to a CSV file that you can open and edit with Microsoft Excel or any other CSV editor.

We need to start by opening the Export tool.

Now you need to select the following values in order to export your custom post types to a CSV:

• What columns do you want to export: You can export specific columns, all the columns, or all active columns only. You can export standard fields and custom fields added with other plugins like Meta Box.
• Which rows do you want to export: You can export all rows, all rows from a specific search, or all manually selected rows.
• What app will you use to edit this file: You can select Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, etc. You’ll download a CSV compatible for the app you have selected.
• Name of this export (optional): You can add a name for this export.
• Click on Start new export.

After these steps, you’ll download a CSV containing your Meta Box custom post types data to your computer.

Here’s what our CSV looks like in Excel:

3- Import Meta Box custom post types from CSV

You can edit your custom post types data using Excel, Google Sheets or any other CSV editor, and then import the data from the CSV into WordPress.

You need to start by opening the Import tool.

Second, you need to select the CSV file you want to import into WordPress:

• Source: CSV file from my computer
• Click on Choose File and select the CSV from your computer.
• Click on Next.

Third, you need to select the columns you want to import into WordPress.

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

Fourth, you need to select how you will import the data.

In this example, we will Create new items and update existing items and match the data in the CSV file with the data on WordPress by ID.

Click on Next.

Finally, you will see a preview.

If everything is OK, you need to click on The preview is fine, start import.

As we have shown you in this tutorial, you can use WP Sheet Editor to export your Meta Box custom post types to a CSV file that you can edit with Excel, Google Sheets, etc. Besides, you can import data from a CSV into WordPress.