Import into Inkwell and Keep Your URLs
Step-by-step
- Upload the export — Open Import in the Desk, choose the WXR or Ghost JSON file, and wait for the preview.
- Review the preview — Check counts by type, untick what you do not want, and choose how to treat existing slugs.
- Generate redirects — Enter the old permalink structure so the importer writes a 301 per post into Redirects.
- Run and check — Run the import, then open the job to see per-item results and re-run failures if any.
On this page
The importer in the Desk reads a WordPress WXR or a Ghost JSON export, shows you what it found, and lets you decide per item before anything is written. Its job is fidelity: the same slugs, the same dates, the same authors, the same categories and tags, and comments attached to the right posts.
Running the import
Go to Import, upload the file, and wait for the preview. You see counts by type and a list you can filter. Untick anything you do not want. Choose how to treat a slug that already exists: skip, overwrite, or import with a suffix. Then run it. Progress is recorded per item, so a failure on one post does not stop the rest, and you can re-run for failed items only.
Keeping the addresses
Inkwell serves posts at /{slug}. If WordPress used /2024/05/{slug}/ or /blog/{slug}, the old addresses need redirects. The importer offers to generate them from the permalink structure you noted in part one, writing one 301 per post into Redirects. Review them before part three.
Media
Copy the uploads folder into wwwroot/uploads keeping its structure, then run the importer's media pass: it rewrites image addresses in post bodies to the new location and records each file in the Media library. Images it cannot find are listed so you can fix them by hand.
Continue with part three: verify before you switch DNS.
