Welcome to Aggregator v5! Our latest version comes packed with powerful improvements designed to enhance your content aggregation and curation experience.
This guide will help you move from WP RSS Aggregator v4 (free or premium) to the new v5 release, step by step.
Before You Start
- Ensure your site is running WordPress version 6.2.2 or later.
- Keep any WP RSS Aggregator plugins (free and premium add-ons) that you are using on the site active in your Plugins page. This is required for the respective data and features connected to those plugins to be migrated to v5.
- Review deprecated actions and filters. Aggregator v5 removes several actions and filters that were available in v4 for customizing feed imports and post-processing. If your site uses these hooks, refer to the Actions and Filters Deprecation Guide to understand what has changed.
- [Premium Customers] If you have a premium license that is either an individual legacy add-on or a legacy bundle, these must be upgraded to the new plans before migration. You will not be able to migrate to v5’s premium features unless you have a license that is connected to one of the current plans: Basic, Pro, or Elite (previously All Access).
- The legacy add-ons and bundles that require a switch to the new plans include:
- Advanced Feeds Bundle (equivalent to the current Pro Plan)
- Simple Feeds Bundle (equivalent to the Basic Plan)
- Or any of the individual add-ons which are not part of a bundle or plan, such as Feed to Post, Full Text RSS Feeds, Templates, and so on.
- The legacy add-ons and bundles that require a switch to the new plans include:
- [Premium Customers] Once you are on one of our current premium plans, log in to your WP RSS Aggregator account, go to the Downloads page, and click on the the “
Download wp-rss-aggregator-premium-5.x.x” button.
Important: All Your v4 Data is Safe
All your data from v4, including sources, imported items, settings, templates, etc, will remain stored on your site throughout and after the migration process. You will never lose data, regardless of how many times you run the migration or switch versions.
We made this an integral part of the migration process in order to ensure that you can roll back to a previous version in case anything goes wrong or you need help from our support team to figure things out.
The Migration Process
Once you’ve confirmed that you meet the requirements stated above and are ready to proceed with the migration process, start by following the below steps.
Free users using only the core WP RSS Aggregator plugin:
- Update the free core plugin to the latest version 5 release from your Plugins page.
- Go to RSS Aggregator > Settings > Switch to v5 to begin the migration process.
Premium customers using any of the WP RSS Aggregator add-ons:
- Make sure all currently used v4 add‑on plugins on your site are active in the Plugins page.
- Update the free core plugin to the latest version 5 release from your Plugins page.
- Install and activate the WP RSS Aggregator – Premium plugin that you downloaded in step 4 of the “Before You Start” section above.
- Go to RSS Aggregator > Settings > Switch to v5 to begin the migration process.
On the “Switch to v5” page, as you see below, you will find further instructions and videos that will guide you through the v5 changes and migration wizard.
Important notice for larger sites:
If your site has more than 10,000 imported items, we strongly recommend using the WP-CLI migration method instead of the built-in wizard. It’s designed specifically for larger sites and helps prevent timeouts or performance issues during migration. You’ll need basic developer access via SSH. We’ve outlined every step in our WP-CLI migration guide.
The Migration Wizard
Once you click on the “Switch to v5” button at the bottom of the page, the migration wizard will appear.
Important: If you are a premium customer using any WP RSS Aggregator add-ons, you must install and activate the WP RSS Aggregator – Premium plugin before starting the migration. You cannot proceed with the migration wizard if this plugin is not installed and activated.
If these requirements are not met, Aggregator will block the migration and display one of the following screens.
Premium Plugin Not Installed
If you see this screen, Aggregator has detected that you are using WP RSS Aggregator add-ons, but the new WP RSS Aggregator – Premium plugin is not installed.
1. Click the Download from Your Account button. This will take you directly to the Downloads page in your Aggregator account and the wizard will automatically move to the next step.
2. Click the Go to Plugins Page button.
3. Choose the file you downloaded from your account.
4. Click Install Now.
5. Once installation is complete, click Activate Plugin.
Once the Premium plugin is installed and activated, go back to Aggregator and continue the migration process.
Premium Plugin Installed but Not Activated
If you see this screen, the Premium plugin is installed but not yet activated.
Click the Activate Aggregator Premium button and Aggregator will activate the Premium plugin for you. Once activated, you can start with the migration process.
Start the Migration
Click on the Start migration button to get started.
If at any time you wish to stop and cancel the migration to go back to v4, click on the Cancel migration and stay on v4 button.
The next screen highlights the new features and improvements in Aggregator v5. Click on the Next button to continue.
In the next step, as explained above, larger sites with 10,000+ imported items or a large number of sources will be prompted to use our WP-CLI migration method for a more reliable switch to v5. Read the step-by-step CLI Migration guide here.
If you’re running a premium version of Aggregator on your site, you will be asked to enter your license key. If you’re not sure where to find your license key or which license key to enter, please check out this v5 license guide.
Once you’ve entered your license key, click on the Activate button.
A confirmation message will appear if you’ve entered the correct license key. In case you need help activating your license, please contact our support team for guidance.
Click on the Next button.
As explained in the next step, before the actual data migration process begins, we strongly recommend you do the following:
- Back up your site. If you don’t know how, check out this guide.
- Make sure your site and hosting meet the minimum requirements.
- Run the migration on a staging site first to confirm that everything works correctly.
When you’re ready to proceed, click on the Start migration button.
The migration process itself will begin immediately, transferring over your settings, sources, items, and templates to v5 and creating your new Hub.
This might take anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes, depending on how much data needs to be migrated.
Important: Leaving or refreshing this page will interrupt the migration process. Please stay on the migration wizard until it’s complete and proceed to the next step for a successful migration.
When all the steps have completed and the button turns blue, click on the Next button.
The data migration is now almost completed. At this stage, you can choose to deactivate your v4 add-ons (if you have any), as all the premium features are now being powered by the single WP RSS Aggregator – Premium plugin (along with the core WP RSS Aggregator plugin, which also needs to be kept active on your site at all times).
Lastly, it’s important to click on the Finish Migration button to complete the migration.
Once you do this, you will be taken to your new Hub.
From here, you can start getting familiar with the new v5 interface.
Rollback and Re‑Run Options
If something doesn’t work as expected during the migration process or you want to keep using v4 temporarily, v5 offers both a roll-back option as well as the possibility to re-run the migration.
To access these options, go to Aggregator > Settings > Advanced, and scroll down to the bottom of the page.
Re-run Migration
If something went wrong with your migration, you can re-run the migration at any time. When re-running the migration, all your v5 data will be erased and a fresh migration will begin.
Keep in mind that your v4 data is still stored safely on your site, so it’s only the v5 data that will be removed at this stage. This allows you to re-run the migration as many times as needed without any risk of losing data.
If you’ve run the previous migration using WP-CLI, we recommend erasing all v5 data via WP-CLI as well, using the commands explained in our WP-CLI guide.
Roll Back to v4
Your original v4 setup is still available along with all its data. Rolling back will restore your previous v4 setup, and you can then migrate to v5 again at any time.
Do note that if you were using premium add-ons in v4 before the migration, these need to be active on your site before rolling back. You can check this from your Plugins page.
Optional: Convert Shortcodes or Blocks to Displays
If you are using any existing WP RSS Aggregator shortcodes and blocks, these will continue to work after migrating to v5, but we recommend converting them to the new Displays for better control, future updates, and full compatibility with the new system:
