Getting Past the All-in-One WP Migration Import Limit

All-in-One WP Migration is great until your export is bigger than the import cap — historically 512MB, often much lower on shared hosting. The plugin nudges you toward a paid extension, but there are free routes.

Why the limit exists

The import size is bounded by your server's PHP upload limits, not just the plugin. Even after the plugin's own cap, you'll hit upload_max_filesize and post_max_size. Both need raising.

Fix 1: Raise PHP limits

; php.ini or via your host's PHP settings panel
upload_max_filesize = 1024M
post_max_size = 1024M
max_execution_time = 600
memory_limit = 512M

On hosts where you can't edit php.ini, many All-in-One WP Migration versions read a constant. Add to wp-config.php:

define('AI1WM_MAX_FILE_SIZE', 2 << 30); // 2GB

Fix 2: Skip the upload — drop the file in directly

If you have FTP/SFTP access, you can bypass the browser upload entirely. Place the .wpress export file in:

wp-content/ai1wm-backups/

Then open the plugin's Backups tab — the file appears there and you can Restore it without ever uploading through the browser. This sidesteps the upload limit completely.

Fix 3: Forget the plugin, import the database directly

For very large sites, the most reliable migration is files + database the old-fashioned way: copy wp-content over FTP, export the database as SQL, and import it directly. The database is the part that hits limits — and that's exactly where splitting helps.

• Export the WordPress database as a .sql dump
• Split it into chunks under your host's import limit
• Import the chunks in order via phpMyAdmin or CLI
• Run a search-replace for the old → new URL afterwards

After a direct database import, run wp search-replace 'https://old.com' 'https://new.com' --all-tables to fix serialized data safely. A raw SQL find-and-replace will corrupt serialized PHP arrays.