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Decide what “everything” means for your CMS export
Export requirements depend on the goal. A copy for auditing published articles may need less than a disaster-recovery archive or a move to another CMS. Make an inventory before choosing a tool; CMS platforms store and export these categories differently.
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- Content: published and draft records, locales, custom types and fields, taxonomies, metadata, and references.
- Files: asset records and the actual binary files, such as images and documents.
- History and ownership: revision history, authors, users, and ownership details.
- Operations: permissions, workflows, scheduled items, integrations, webhooks, and site configuration.
Mark each category as required, optional, or out of scope for the intended use. This list is a planning aid, not a claim that every CMS supports each category in an export.
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Choose an export path by its documented scope
Read the documentation for the exact product, tool, API, and version you plan to use. Compare whether each method includes drafts and localized content, downloads asset binaries, preserves configuration and history, and has limits that matter for your project. Also check authentication requirements, output format, and whether the destination can import that format.
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For Sanity, the CLI dataset export and the Export API serve different purposes. The CLI creates a gzipped tarball containing data.ndjson, an asset URL map, and asset binary directories. Documents and asset binaries are included by default; options include --no-assets, --raw, --no-drafts, and --types. See Sanity’s CLI export documentation.
Sanity’s authenticated Export API instead streams accessible, non-deleted dataset documents as NDJSON, including drafts and asset documents. It does not download the asset binary files, and its output represents document state at the time of the request. See the Sanity Export API reference. Sanity says dataset exports are billed against API quota.
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Contentful documents export and import through its CLI as well as export options through APIs. Its help page describes categories and technical limits by resource and mechanism; consult the Contentful data export guidance and the Contentful CLI import and export documentation. Contentful’s Content Management API can return localized and unpublished content, but Contentful cautions against using it to deliver large amounts of content; that behavior alone does not make it a complete backup method. See its Content Management API overview.
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Verify that asset files are actually present
An exported asset reference does not prove that its binary file is in the archive. Check the export output for files and any download errors, then open representative assets. In Sanity’s CLI, an asset download that returns HTTP 401, 403, or 404 may be reported and skipped. The Export API includes asset documents but does not download binary files.
Contentful’s CLI documentation says assets migrate with content, with a special case for embargoed assets: enable asset download during export and asset upload during import. Check the relevant options in the CLI documentation rather than assuming ordinary asset handling covers this case.
Account for exclusions before treating an export as a system copy
Contentful documents several CLI limitations that can change what an export preserves. These are Contentful-specific caveats, not universal CMS rules:
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- Drafts are not included by default.
- Version history is not migrated.
- Scheduled releases, tasks, and workflows are not migrated.
- Webhook credentials are omitted, and memberships are unsupported.
- Apps and UI extensions are not exported.
- The destination’s default locale must match the source for the documented workflow.
- Imported entries are recreated under the importing token’s owner, changing author history.
Review the current Contentful CLI import and export documentation before a migration, since platform documentation and behavior can change. For other CMS products, identify their own exclusions instead of applying this list to them.
Keep a source copy and test the output
Before changing content or schemas, preserve a source copy. Sanity recommends exporting or copying a dataset before migrations, and its migration command runs in dry-run mode unless --no-dry-run is supplied. Review proposed changes before applying them; details are in Sanity’s schema and content migration guidance and content migration cheat sheet.
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Validate a test export and import before production cutover:
- Compare counts. Where possible, compare expected and exported record totals by content type, locale, or other useful category.
- Inspect examples. Open representative published and draft records, including items with references, localized fields, and unusual metadata.
- Check media. Confirm that expected binary files exist and open, not just that asset records or URLs appear in the export.
- Test import and rendering. Import into a safe destination, verify references and locale behavior, and check that representative pages render as expected.
- Record gaps. Note exclusions or differences that need a separate export, manual recreation, or an approved change in scope.
Plan for transformation when moving to a different CMS
An export file is not necessarily ready to import unchanged into another vendor’s schema. Content types, fields, references, and rich-text formats may differ. Sanity’s WordPress migration material describes importing posts, pages, categories, tags, and assets, converting HTML and WordPress blocks, and restructuring content for the destination schema. See Sanity’s WordPress-to-Sanity migration course.
Contentful also distinguishes migrations that apply content-model changes from a direct export/import. For a cross-platform move, map source fields and relationships to destination structures before bulk import, and plan for content that needs conversion or manual recreation. A CMS migration specialist may be useful when that mapping is extensive, but the export documentation alone does not establish that any particular provider is required.
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Match the export method to the job
| Goal | What to prioritize | Validation focus |
|---|---|---|
| Disaster recovery | Records and asset binaries needed to restore the site, plus a protected source copy. | Import into a safe destination and verify representative content, files, references, and rendering. |
| Vendor exit | Portable content and files, documented exclusions, and a plan for fields or formats that do not map directly. | Test transformation and destination import; check locales, references, media, and rendered pages. |
| Audit or point-in-time copy | The records and state required for the audit, with clear awareness of whether history, ownership, or configuration is included. | Compare expected and exported records and inspect representative items against the defined scope. |
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