KanbanWP is a separate, new plugin under new ownership. It is not an update to the older “Kanban for WordPress” plugin and it shares no code with it. If you used that plugin and its data is still in your database, KanbanWP includes a best-effort importer to help you bring the basics across.
Who this is for
Use it if all of these are true:
- Your site once ran the older Kanban plugin.
- Its database tables or settings are still there, even if the plugin is now deactivated or removed.
- You want your old boards and cards as a starting point in KanbanWP.
If you never used the older plugin, you will not see anything to import. The screen will say “No legacy Kanban data found on this site.”
How it finds your data
The importer is not written against a fixed schema. It looks for:
- database tables with “kanban” in their name, other than KanbanWP’s own tables,
- options that start with
kanban_.
From the tables it finds, it guesses which one holds boards, which holds lists or statuses, and which holds cards, using common column names such as title, name, description, board and status. This is a heuristic. It can work well when the layout is typical and fail when it is not.
Run it
- Go to KanbanWP > Import / Export and find the Legacy importer section.
- If data is detected, it lists the tables and options it found.
- Click Dry-run (preview) first. Nothing is created. A notice lists each board it would import, with the number of stages and tasks.
- If the preview looks right, click Import legacy data and confirm.
A notice reports how many stages and tasks were created.
What comes across
- Boards, using their titles. If no board table is found, one board is created and named “Legacy Kanban import”.
- Lists or statuses as stages. If none exist, a board gets the stages To Do, Doing and Done.
- Cards as tasks, with title, description and position.
Each imported board gets a description saying it was imported from legacy Kanban data.
Limits
- Only the basics. Comments, assignees, labels, due dates, checklists, attachments, user accounts and plugin settings are not imported.
- Guesswork. If column names are unusual, cards may land in the wrong stage, or the importer may report that it found no recognizable board or card data.
- No de-duplication. Running the real import twice creates the boards twice. Use the dry run, then import once.
- Read only. The importer does not change or delete your old tables.
After the import
- Open each new board and check stages and cards.
- Rebuild anything the importer could not bring, such as labels and assignees.
- Once you are happy, you can remove the old plugin’s data using your usual database tools, after taking a backup. KanbanWP never does this for you.
If the importer cannot read your data, a CSV file is a reliable fallback. Export your cards from the old tool’s database into a CSV with a title column and import it as described on Importing and exporting boards.