How do you back up WordPress theme settings and move them to another site?

Last updated: November 3, 2026

In short: In Wiozen Theme (since 1.2.0) you click "Download backup" in the "Settings backup" card on the Customize tab under Appearance › Wiozen Theme; every panel setting and each design's front page modules download as one JSON file. To restore, you pick the file in the same card and click "Restore". The file doesn't contain posts, images, the logo or the selected design; it doesn't replace a site backup.

What's in the backup file and what isn't?

The downloaded file's name starts with wiozen-theme-settings- and ends with the download date. Along with the theme name, version, download time and site address, it holds two parts: panel settings and front page modules.

In the file:

• Header and footer layout and on/off switches such as the breaking news ticker, the dark mode button, the top bar and slider settings.
• Social account links and the copyright line in the footer.
• Site codes (Google Analytics, verification tags), the ad codes you pasted into ad slots and which ad slots are turned off.
• The colours you changed, kept separately for each design.
• Categories in the menu, the cookie notice texts and the glossary category in the Guide design.
• The module order and settings of every front page you edited, across the News, Technology, Finance, Food and Guide designs.

Not in the file: posts, pages, images and menus; the logo, site icon, site title and tagline (the Site identity card writes these to WordPress's own settings); the selected design; headers, footers and templates you saved in the Site Editor; the Wiozen account connection.

Downloading and restoring the backup

1. Open Appearance › Wiozen Theme and go to the Customize tab.
2. In the "Settings backup" card, click "Download backup" and save the file to your computer.
3. To restore, pick the file in the "Restore from a backup file" field of the same card.
4. Click "Restore" and confirm "Replace the current panel settings with the ones in this file?".
5. Look for the "Settings restored from the backup file." notice at the top of the page, then reload the site in a new tab.

The theme only accepts a file it downloaded itself. If you pick another file it says "This file is not a Wiozen Theme settings backup. Nothing was changed." and leaves the settings alone. Files larger than 200 KB aren't read either.

These panel tabs open on a site connected to a Wiozen account with at least $5 in total top-ups. If you're moving the site, you need to connect the theme to the account on the new site too.

What happens to the current settings when you restore?

All panel settings are replaced with the ones in the file. A setting that isn't in the file goes back to its default, so a restore doesn't mix with the current settings. Every value goes through the same checks as when it's saved from the panel; an invalid value falls back to the default.

For front page modules, only the designs present in the file change. If the backup only holds the News design's modules and you've also edited the Food design's modules, Food's stay as they are.

Only a user with the unfiltered HTML capability (unfiltered_html) can restore site codes and ad codes. Without it, the other settings come from the file and the codes stay as they are on the site. On a single WordPress site administrators have this capability; on a multisite network only the network admin does.

What should you check after moving to another site?

Some settings store a category or page by the ID number WordPress gives it, not by name. A category with the same name usually has a different number on two sites. When restoring, the theme drops numbers that don't exist on the new site, but if a number matches a different category it uses that one. So check:

• The "Categories in the menu" card on the Settings tab: are the right categories turned on?
• Customize › Front page modules: is the source of every module fed by a category or tag correct? A module whose source doesn't exist on the new site is hidden on the front page.
• The cookie notice's policy page and the glossary category in the Guide design.

Enter the logo, site icon, site title and tagline on the new site separately in the "Site identity" card on the Settings tab. Pick the design on the Designs tab as well; the backup doesn't change the selected design.

If you're moving the whole site (database included), you don't need the settings backup; theme settings come along with the database. The settings backup helps most when you set up a new, empty site with the old site's look, or open several sites with the same settings.

When should you take a backup?

The settings backup is a single file and downloads in seconds. Take a copy before a big change, for example before rearranging the front page modules, changing colours or switching to another design. If you don't like the result, restoring the file takes you back to the old settings.

The file contains site codes and ad codes as plain text. They aren't passwords, but don't put the file somewhere public.

For a backup of posts and images, use your host's backup or a backup plugin. The theme leaves that job to plugins.

Frequently asked questions

To keep your settings in a file, download Wiozen Theme for free. For the site codes in the backup, see the Analytics and Search Console guide.