Import from Disqus

Years of comments are part of your site's content, and switching comment systems should not cost them. Connect imports the standard Disqus export file directly.

Disqus import is available on paid plans. The preview works on any plan, so you can check what your export contains before deciding anything.

1. Export from Disqus

In the Disqus admin, go to Community and then Export, and request an export. Disqus emails you a link to a compressed XML file, usually within minutes for small sites, longer for large ones. Download and unzip it; the file you need ends in .xml.

2. Preview

In the Connect dashboard, open your site's Import & export page and drop the XML file in the upload area. The file is analyzed immediately; nothing is imported at this stage. The preview tells you exactly what the import would do:

• how many comments on how many pages,
• how many were already imported by a previous run (they will be skipped),
• how many spam or deleted entries Disqus included (they will be skipped),
• how many comments have no valid page URL (they will be skipped).

3. Import

Click the import button to confirm. The import runs in the background: you can leave the page, comments appear in the widget progressively, and you receive an email when it finishes.

What the import does with your data

• Threads are matched by URL. Each Disqus thread carries the URL of its page; Connect normalizes it and attaches the comments to that page. If a thread for that URL already exists in Connect, the comments join it.
• Approved comments are imported as published. Your public archive comes back public. Disqus spam and deleted entries stay behind.
• Reply structure is kept, one level deep. Connect threads are one level deep by design; deeper Disqus reply chains are attached to the top comment of their branch, in chronological order.
• Running the same import twice is safe. Every imported comment remembers its Disqus id, so a re-run (or an overlapping export) skips what is already there instead of duplicating it.

Before you flip the switch

One thing deserves attention when migrating: page identity. Imported threads are identified by their page URL, so the widget on a given page finds them through that URL. Concretely:

• If you install the widget with the default configuration (no data-page-id), everything matches as long as your URLs are the ones in the Disqus export.
• If your URLs changed since the Disqus era (site moved to HTTPS long after the comments, domain changed, slugs restructured), the imported threads sit on the old URLs. Check a few high-comment pages after import; if they come up empty, contact us with the details before re-running anything.

After import, the JSON export gives you a complete copy of everything, imported comments included. Migrating in does not lock you in.