Exporting and Importing Your Settings

The Export / Import tab saves your whole portal setup as one JSON file and loads it on another site. Use it to copy a finished setup from a staging site to your live store, to set up several stores the same way, or to keep a backup before you try big changes.

Export your settings#

1. Go to WooCommerce > Account Portal > Export / Import.
2. Under Export, click Download settings file.
3. Your browser saves a file named like wc-account-portal-settings-yourstore.com-2026-10-30.json (your site’s host name and today’s date).

Keep the file somewhere safe. It is plain text, so you can open it in any editor to see what it holds.

Import a settings file#

1. On the site that should get the settings, go to WooCommerce > Account Portal > Export / Import.
2. Under Import, choose the .json file.
3. Click Import settings.
4. Confirm the message: “Replace this site’s portal settings with the ones in the file? Download a backup first if you may want them back.”

When it worked you see Settings imported. at the top of the page.

What the file contains#

Part of the file	What it holds
settings	Every portal setting: menu items, custom pages, Dashboard layout (including layouts per role or customer group), appearance and colours, brand theme CSS, your texts from Content & Text, all per-language translations, General options and the CAPTCHA provider and options.
icons	The SVG icons you uploaded in the icon picker (Your icons).
images	Which file each image setting uses (its path in the uploads folder), so an import can tell whether an image ID is the same image on the other site.
logos	The web addresses of your light and dark logo, for reference.
plugin, version, exported, site	Which plugin and version made the file, when (UTC), and the site it came from.

What is not exported#

• CAPTCHA keys: the site key and secret key belong to one domain, so they stay on the site. After an import, enter the keys for the new site on CAPTCHA / Spam. The rest of the CAPTCHA settings (provider, which forms) are imported.
• Your license: the license key and activation are stored separately and are never in the file. Activate the license on each site on the License tab.
• Image files: the logo, the dark mode logo and the login page background image are saved as media library IDs (logo_id, logo_dark_id, auth_brand_bg_image_id) with the name of the file each one uses, not as the files themselves. Logos are not copied between sites. Your uploaded SVG icons are copied (see the icons part above).

How the import handles images#

Media library IDs are different on every site. When you import, each of the three image settings is checked against this site’s media library. An image ID is kept only when it is the same file on this site (the same path in the uploads folder as recorded in the file’s images part). Otherwise the setting is cleared, and the portal falls back to having no image there (the site name instead of a logo, the primary colour instead of a background image).

• Same site, or a staging site cloned from it: the media library has the same files under the same IDs, so the logo, the dark mode logo and the background image are kept.
• A different site: if that ID does not exist there, or it is an unrelated image, the image is cleared. Pick it again.

So after importing on another site:

1. Upload your logo files to that site’s media library (the logos part of the file lists the addresses of the original images if you need to download them).
2. Go to WooCommerce > Account Portal > Appearance and pick the logo, the dark mode logo and the background image again.
3. Save.

Importing a backup on the same site keeps the images, because the IDs still point to the same files there.

How the import handles everything else#

• Settings are merged on top of the current ones. A setting that is in the file replaces this site’s value; a setting that is not in the file (for example from an older version of the plugin) keeps its current value.
• Unknown keys are ignored. Only settings that this version of the plugin knows are read. Anything else in the file is skipped, and the two CAPTCHA key settings are always skipped even if someone added them to the file.
• Values get the right type. On/off settings become on/off, numbers become numbers, and a value of the wrong kind (for example a list where text is expected) is skipped.
• Text is cleaned like the settings forms clean it. Texts and translations keep safe HTML only; the brand theme and custom CSS are cleaned as CSS.
• Uploaded icons are replaced. When the file has an icons part, this site’s own uploaded icons are replaced by the ones in the file (up to 200). Every icon is cleaned again on import; an icon that is not a usable SVG is skipped. A file made before custom icons existed has no icons part, and this site’s icons are left alone.

Errors#

Message	What it means
No file was uploaded. Choose a settings file and try again.	No file was chosen, or the upload failed.
That file is too large to be a settings file.	The file is over 2 MB.
That file is not a WC Account Portal settings file. Nothing was changed.	The file is not valid JSON, or it was not made by this plugin.

Who can use it#

Export and import need the manage_woocommerce capability (Administrators and Shop Managers by default), the same as the rest of the settings page.

Related#

• A Tour of the Settings Tabs
• Activating Your License
• Translating Your Custom Text