# Steps to take to move from WF to WA..? **URL:** \ **Category:** Help\ **Created:** [June 8, 2019, 7:48pm UTC](https://discuss.write.as/t/steps-to-take-to-move-from-wf-to-wa/668 "2019-06-08T19:48:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![lhl](https://discuss.write.as/user_avatar/discuss.write.as/lhl/32/103_2.png) [@lhl](https://discuss.write.as/u/lhl)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2019, 7:48pm UTC](https://discuss.write.as/t/steps-to-take-to-move-from-wf-to-wa/668/1 "2019-06-08T19:48:35Z")
I have some reasons that I would like to move my self-hosted WriteFreely site to a hosted WriteAs site. a) Can this be done? b) What are the steps involved, beyond setting up an account? ---
**Author:** ![matt](https://discuss.write.as/user_avatar/discuss.write.as/matt/32/2760_2.png) [@matt](https://discuss.write.as/u/matt)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2019, 5:35pm UTC](https://discuss.write.as/t/steps-to-take-to-move-from-wf-to-wa/668/2 "2019-06-09T17:35:49Z")
It can definitely be done. The process would be: - exporting data from your WF site - importing to Write.as via the API I’m throwing together a small tool to help with this now. What operating system do you use (e.g. Windows, mac, Linux)? ---
**Author:** ![lhl](https://discuss.write.as/user_avatar/discuss.write.as/lhl/32/103_2.png) [@lhl](https://discuss.write.as/u/lhl)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2019, 5:51pm UTC](https://discuss.write.as/t/steps-to-take-to-move-from-wf-to-wa/668/3 "2019-06-09T17:51:39Z")
Excellent. I’m on Linux. ---
**Author:** ![matt](https://discuss.write.as/user_avatar/discuss.write.as/matt/32/2760_2.png) [@matt](https://discuss.write.as/u/matt)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2019, 6:59pm UTC](https://discuss.write.as/t/steps-to-take-to-move-from-wf-to-wa/668/4 "2019-06-09T18:59:10Z")
Great. You can download the tool for Linux here: [wfimport (64-bit)](https://s3.amazonaws.com/dl.write.as/wfimport-linux-amd64.tar.gz). To use it to migrate to Write.as: - Create a Write.as account - On your WriteFreely site, go to the Export page and click either the “json” or “prettified” option to download all account data - Download and extract the `wfimport` tool linked above - Run it on that exported JSON file with the following command, replacing `username` with your Write.as username and `exportdata.json` with the downloaded filename: ```auto ./wfimport -u username exportdata.json ``` - Enter your Write.as account password At this point it’ll import all blogs (“collections”) and posts to your Write.as account. **Note** : if any blogs in your data export share an alias with a blog you already own, those posts will be published to your existing blog. Otherwise it’ll create a new blog and publish the posts to it. Also, if that alias is taken by another Write.as user, the blog simply won’t be imported at all right now. [Here is the source code for this tool](https://github.com/writeas/wf-migrate). Let me know if you run into any issues. ---
**Author:** ![lhl](https://discuss.write.as/user_avatar/discuss.write.as/lhl/32/103_2.png) [@lhl](https://discuss.write.as/u/lhl)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2019, 7:38pm UTC](https://discuss.write.as/t/steps-to-take-to-move-from-wf-to-wa/668/5 "2019-06-09T19:38:20Z")
OK. This is the response: ```auto Logging in to write.as...OK Getting your collections...OK Reading file...OK Parsing file...OK Read user matt export. Found 1 collection(s). Found 0 draft post(s). matt has 37 post(s). Creating collection matt...error: Collection name is already taken. Logging out...OK ``` ---
**Author:** ![lhl](https://discuss.write.as/user_avatar/discuss.write.as/lhl/32/103_2.png) [@lhl](https://discuss.write.as/u/lhl)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2019, 8:28pm UTC](https://discuss.write.as/t/steps-to-take-to-move-from-wf-to-wa/668/6 "2019-06-09T20:28:05Z")
OK. I changed the `"alias":"name"` in the exported `.json` file. Doing so allowed me to successfully import the posts to the WriteAs Blog. Just need to re-import all the images to go along with the posts now…! ---
**Author:** ![lhl](https://discuss.write.as/user_avatar/discuss.write.as/lhl/32/103_2.png) [@lhl](https://discuss.write.as/u/lhl)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2019, 9:11pm UTC](https://discuss.write.as/t/steps-to-take-to-move-from-wf-to-wa/668/7 "2019-06-09T21:11:48Z")
A new learning curve, sort of…! When using a **Custom Domain** name, How do I login? I don’t see any menu options… ---
**Author:** ![matt](https://discuss.write.as/user_avatar/discuss.write.as/matt/32/2760_2.png) [@matt](https://discuss.write.as/u/matt)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2019, 9:34pm UTC](https://discuss.write.as/t/steps-to-take-to-move-from-wf-to-wa/668/8 "2019-06-09T21:34:18Z")
So the custom domain is really only for readers – all management is done on [Write.as](https://write.as) when logged in. You’ll notice when publishing / navigating to blogs, the URL will be write.as/example/ instead of [example.com](http://example.com). That’ll give you control over your posts, but readers will always see / be redirected to your custom domain. ---
**Author:** ![lhl](https://discuss.write.as/user_avatar/discuss.write.as/lhl/32/103_2.png) [@lhl](https://discuss.write.as/u/lhl)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2019, 9:55pm UTC](https://discuss.write.as/t/steps-to-take-to-move-from-wf-to-wa/668/9 "2019-06-09T21:55:08Z")
Many thanks @matt for making this happen. My main reason for making the switch is so that I can make use of SnapAs for my photography. I was a reluctant user of PixelFed - which if one wants an Instagram replacement is SO much better, but I just needed a place to have my images on show… As a now **Pro** user of WriteAs the costs for me work out pretty much the same as what I would be giving to Amazon for the AWS server usage. As much as I like to have control over my software, I believe that yourself and the WriteAs team/products are true to your word and philosophy and the hosting/updating etc will be well managed. ---
**Author:** ![matt](https://discuss.write.as/user_avatar/discuss.write.as/matt/32/2760_2.png) [@matt](https://discuss.write.as/u/matt)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2019, 12:57pm UTC](https://discuss.write.as/t/steps-to-take-to-move-from-wf-to-wa/668/10 "2019-06-10T12:57:17Z")
Happy to do it! That definitely makes sense. And I really appreciate you trusting us with your hosting. As you go along, keep us in the loop with your experience / feedback on Snap.as so we can keep improving it 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![matt](https://discuss.write.as/user_avatar/discuss.write.as/matt/32/2760_2.png) [@matt](https://discuss.write.as/u/matt)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 8:32pm UTC](https://discuss.write.as/t/steps-to-take-to-move-from-wf-to-wa/668/11 "2019-08-26T20:32:12Z")
5 posts were split to a new topic: [Moving from WriteFreely to Write.as](https://discuss.write.as/t/moving-from-writefreely-to-write-as/794)