If you’ve ever wanted to backup or export your WordPress Customizer settings, there is a plugin for you. Customizer Export/Import by The Beaver Builder Team is a huge time saver. If you’re starting a new WordPress site and want to import the Customizer settings used on a previous site then this plugin is awesome. However, the most common situation we recommend Customizer Export/Import for is the late installation of a child theme.

Adding a Child Theme After You’ve Already Setup the Parent Theme

When installing a child theme, the theme slug changes, this means that all Customizer settings reset to default.

You may need to re-save your menu (Appearance > Menus, or Appearance > Customize > Menus) and theme options (including background and header images) after activating the child theme.
https://developer.wordpress.org/themes/advanced-topics/child-themes/

This is no problem if you’re installing a child theme at the start of your site’s development. However, if you’ve already set up menus, backgrounds and a long list of theme options, this is a big time waster. To avoid redoing all of your Customizer settings once the child theme has been activated, follow these easy steps:

1. Go to PluginsAdd New, search for, install and activate Customizer Export/Import.

2. With your parent theme activated (not the child theme) go to CustomizeExport/Import. Click the Export button which will download a .dat file to your desktop or downloads folder.

3. Assuming your child theme has already been installed, go to AppearanceThemes and activate it.

4. With your child theme activated, go to CustomizeExport/Import, under the Import heading, click the Choose File button, select the .dat file you downloaded in step two, enable the import images option and click Import.

Hopefully, you’ve found this helpful. If you have any questions or comments, please, feel free to post them below.

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6 Comments

  1. Terry
    February 17, 2018

    This is great! Thanks Andrew. This will be a timesaver!

    Reply
    1. Andrew Misplon
      February 18, 2018

      Super 🙂 Glad to hear you found it useful.

      Reply
  2. shreddie
    July 31, 2018

    Awesome – worked perfectly for me with Puro. Thanks!

    Reply
    1. Andrew Misplon
      July 31, 2018

      Awesome, glad to hear you were able to make the move.

      Reply
  3. Jack Wheeler
    November 27, 2018

    This doesn’t seem to work if I’m exporting from the main theme, then attempting to import to the child theme. I get an error that “The settings you uploaded are not for the current theme.”

    Reply
    1. Andrew Misplon
      November 28, 2018

      Hi Jack. Sorry to hear about the hassle. I haven’t come across this error before. Which theme are you using? Can you perhaps send a URL to your site with the child activated so I can take a look? Thanks.

      Reply

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