How to Import and Export SharePoint 2007 Task List with Attachments

SharePoint 2007 can be a monster to administer and if you have run into some of the weird issues that I have in the past few years you know what I am talking about. Well again I found a very simple thing that wasn't working within SharePoint 2007, I was trying to move a Task List from one SharePoint 2007 website to another and it wouldn't export the Task List and import it just fine but the problem was it wouldn't move the attachments with the Task List. So I started trying to find a method to make this work and found a great STSADM command that would do it but ran into some other problems. The STSADM command I found was a great little tool that was written by someone very smart but they don't explain how to actually use the command. So in this guide I will walk you through the STSADM command and ALL of the steps to get it to work.

So first the commands you will run are simple STSADM commands on your SharePoint 2007 server. To run these commands you have to be an admin on the server and an admin for the sites you are exporting and importing the Task List to. There are two commands you will use they are listed below:

Export Command

stsadm -o gl-exportlist -url "http://yoursite/Documents/TaskList/AllItems.aspx" -filename "c:\docs" -includeusersecurity -versions 4 -nofilecompression

Import Command

stsadm -o gl-importlist -url "http://yoursite/" -filename "c:\docs" -includeusersecurity -updateversions 2 -nofilecompression -retargetlinks -sourceurl http://yoursite/Documents/TaskList/AllItems.aspx

You of course have to change the URLS to match your sites and the file names and locations to where you want to save the file. These two commands work perfectly to move a task list from one site to another; you can even move them cross domain or from one farm to another. The only catch is you have to install a WSP file that was written to make these two commands work. Without installing the WSP files these two commands do nothing other than come back with an error. The WSP file you have to install is just an extension of the STSADM commands that was written specifically for these two commands.

So to download and install the WSP file so that you can use the commands to move the Task List and attachments follow these steps:

Download the WSP file HERE

Put the file on the server you want to deploy the solution on (the server where the task list is located)

Open a command prompt to STSADM (I wrote an article how to add STSADM to your path, it might help)

Run the command stsadm -o addsolution -filename Lapointe.SharePoint.STSADM.Commands.wsp (make sure you are in the directory where you put the WSP file on the server, in my case C:\test)

Run the command stsadm -o deploysolution -name Lapointe.SharePoint.STSADM.Commands.wsp -immediate -allowgacdeployment

Run the command stsadm -o execadmsvcjobs

Once you have completed the commands and it didn't throw any errors then you are now ready to run the commands to export your Task List. To do this, follow these steps:

Login to the server you need to export the task list from (should be same server you just deployed the WSP file to)

Open a command prompt to STSADM (I wrote an article how to add STSADM to your path, it might help)

Run the command stsadm -o gl-exportlist -url "http://yoursite/Documents/TaskList/AllItems.aspx" -filename "c:\docs" -includeusersecurity -versions 4 -nofilecompression

Now if this completed with no errors you should be able to go to the file location C:\docs and see all of the files for the task list. Now you can go to any SharePoint Farm in any environment and import this task list with all of its attachments. Remember if you are importing the Task List to a different server you have to run through the install of the WSP file again on the new server before you can import the Task List and its attachments.

To import the task list follow these steps:

First if it's a new server make sure you go back through the WSP install steps above

Copy the files from where ever you exported the list ("C:\docs" was my example) to the new server

Open a command prompt to STSADM (I wrote an article how to add STSADM to your path, it might help)

Run the command stsadm -o gl-importlist -url "http://yoursite/" -filename "c:\docs" -includeusersecurity -updateversions 2 -nofilecompression -retargetlinks -sourceurl http://yoursite/Documents/TaskList/AllItems.aspx

Now you can go to the site where you imported the task list and all of your tasks should be there and more importantly all of your attachments will be there as well. I hope this guide helps you to get around the issue of exporting and importing Task Lists where the attachments don't import/export properly.