Migrate From Another Theme
Migrate From Another Theme
Switching to PremiumPress Directory from MyListing, ListingPro, Listeo, Listivo or Listify, on the same WordPress site.
When you activate PremiumPress on a site that ran one of those themes, the old listings are still in your database under the old theme's post type. Settings ▸ Migrate reads them from there and turns them into PremiumPress listings. Nothing is exported or uploaded, photos are reused from your media library, and every owner keeps their account.
This guide applies to the Directory product only. The other PremiumPress products (Jobs, Real Estate, Shop and so on) store different kinds of items, so the Migrate screen does not appear on them.
Before you start
- Take a backup. The migration never deletes or edits the old theme's rows, but a backup is the right habit before any bulk change.
- Finish the setup wizard. The Migrate screen only appears once the wizard has completed, so that a site being set up for another product never sees it.
- Leave the old theme's plugin installed if it had one (ListingPro, Listeo and Listivo ship a companion plugin). It does not need to be active. The migration reads the database directly, so it works either way, but keeping the plugin around makes it easy to switch back and compare while you check the result.
What is carried over
| From the old theme | In PremiumPress |
|---|---|
| Title, description, short description, publish date, URL slug | The same fields on the listing |
| Published / pending / draft status | The same status |
| Expired listings | Kept as drafts, republished, or held for review — your choice on the screen |
| Categories, including sub-categories | Listing categories, with the hierarchy recreated |
| Regions / locations (Country › State › City) | The listing's city, region and country fields |
| Tags or keywords | Listing tags |
| Features / amenities | A Features taxonomy, created on first use, that appears in the editor and search filters |
| Address and map coordinates | Address and map pin |
| Phone, website, email | Contact fields |
| Opening hours | Business hours, including split shifts and 24-hour days |
| Social links | Social links (Twitter links become X) |
| Featured image and gallery | Featured image and gallery, in the same order |
| Owner | Owner — the same user account, so members see their listings in the member hub immediately |
| Featured / promoted flag | Featured |
| Claimed / verified flag | Verified, with the claim recorded against the owner |
| Expiry date | Listing expiry |
| Reviews and star ratings | Reviews, with the listing's average rating recalculated |
| Price range ($ / $$ / $$$) | The Price range custom field |
Not carried over, because Directory has no equivalent: listing packages and paid plans, bookings, pricing menus, event dates, and per-category "additional details" fields. The rows stay in your database untouched.
Run the migration
- Go to Settings ▸ Migrate. If PremiumPress found listings from a supported theme, you will also see a notice on the Listings screen with a shortcut here.
- Each theme found on the site has its own card showing how many listings, reviews and photos it holds. Read the notes under the card — they list anything that theme stores which cannot be mapped.
- Choose the options:
- Bring reviews and star ratings across — on by default.
- Download photos hosted elsewhere — leave this off unless the old theme linked to images on another server. Photos already in your media library are reused without downloading.
- Listings that had expired — keep them as drafts (default), publish them again, or hold them for review.
- Click Migrate from …. The run happens in batches while you watch the progress bar; a large directory takes a few minutes. Keep the tab open.
- When it finishes the page reloads with a summary: how many listings were created, how many reviews and photos came across, and any listings that could not be converted.
Listivo: confirm the fields first
Listivo stores every field under a number that differs from site to site, so its card has an extra Confirm the fields table. PremiumPress inspects your data and pre-selects the most likely match for each field (category, location, gallery, price, phone and so on). Check the sample value next to each choice, correct anything that looks wrong, and leave a field as "skip" to ignore it. A skipped field can be mapped on a later run.
Running it again
The migration is safe to repeat. Every migrated listing and review remembers which old row it came from, so a second run updates those in place rather than duplicating them. Run it again if:
- the first run was interrupted (the screen offers Resume instead of starting over),
- you fixed data on the old side and want the change reflected,
- you skipped a Listivo field and want to map it now.
After migrating
- Check a few listings on the front end: the map pin, the hours badge and the gallery order are the quickest way to spot a mapping that needs attention.
- Review the Features taxonomy under Listings ▸ Taxonomies if the old theme had amenities. Rename or merge terms there as you like.
- Assign pricing plans. Migrated listings arrive on no plan. Use the plan controls in the listing editor or bulk actions to place them.
- Geocode anything without a pin. If some listings had an address but no coordinates, the Listings screen shows a one-click Geocode listings now notice once a maps provider is configured.
- Tell your members. They can sign in with the same account as before and will find their listings in the member hub.
Cleaning up the old data
The old theme's rows are left in place so you can compare and re-run. Once you are happy, deactivating and deleting the old theme and its plugin is enough for the site; the orphaned rows do no harm. If you want them gone, a database clean-up plugin can remove posts of the old post type — do that only after a final backup.
Troubleshooting
The Migrate screen is not in the menu. Either this site runs a product other than Directory, the setup wizard has not finished, or you are not an administrator.
"No previous directory theme found." The scan looks for the five supported themes' post types. Click Scan again after restoring a database, or use Settings ▸ Import / Export with a CSV for any other source.
Some photos show "external photos not fetched". Those images were hosted on another server. Run again with Download photos hosted elsewhere ticked to fetch them.
Reviews came across without stars. The old theme stored its ratings under a key PremiumPress did not recognise. The review text is kept; the listing's overall rating falls back to the average the old theme had cached.