Export and import your Media Library

How to back up your files or migrate them between SGEN sites

SGEN can package your entire Media Library into a ZIP archive for backup or transfer, and can restore a library from a ZIP archive produced by an earlier export. These operations are currently reached by your platform team rather than through a built-in admin UI — this article explains what each operation does, when to request it, and what to expect.

SGEN 3.0 note: The Import/Export page that appeared in earlier versions of SGEN is not present in 3.0's left navigation. The underlying export and import operations still function — they are available to your platform or development team. If you need a media backup or a migration, raise a request with your platform team and reference this article so they know what to run.

What is this for?

Media export packages all original uploaded files — images, videos, PDFs, documents — into a single ZIP. Media import reads a ZIP (either from a prior export or a migration archive) and loads those files into the current site's library. The canonical use cases are disaster recovery, site cloning, and agency handoff.

Good use cases

Example 1: Pre-migration backup before a major site rebuild. Before your platform team starts a significant structural change, they export your current media library to a ZIP file and store it off-site. If anything goes wrong during the migration, they can restore the exact set of files by re-importing the ZIP into the rebuilt site.

Export output: A file named media_export_2026-04-23_143022.zip arrives as a browser download. It contains all original image and document files from your uploads/ directory, plus a database/media.json metadata file that allows the importer to recreate filenames and descriptions exactly.

Example 2: Handing off a site to an agency. Your team has built and run the site. The site is being handed to an external agency for ongoing management. Your platform team exports the media library and sends the ZIP alongside the database export. The agency imports the ZIP into their SGEN instance, and all file URLs in pages and posts resolve correctly.

Example 3: Cloning a staging site to production. After finalizing content on a staging site, your platform team exports the media library from staging and imports it into the production site. Because the import uses the embedded media.json to match filenames, pages copied from staging retain their image references without any URL changes.

What NOT to use this for

• Not for individual file downloads — to download a single file, copy its URL from the Media Library grid and open it in your browser. The export ZIP contains the whole library.
• Not for importing media from a non-SGEN source — while the importer can walk an arbitrary ZIP and load files, the cleanest path is a ZIP produced by SGEN's own export. Arbitrary ZIP structures may produce unexpected results.
• Not a cross-tenant shared library — import loads files into the current site only. There is no multi-site shared media feature.

How this connects to other features

• Pages and SG-Builder — imported files land at the same relative paths as the originals, so SGB pages copied alongside a media export will resolve their image references correctly.
• Ecommerce products — product image URLs embedded in page content resolve from the Media Library. A media import that recreates the same paths restores product images automatically.
• Blog posts — cover images and in-post images stored in the library are restored alongside the post content import.

Before you start

• You need platform team access or equivalent admin rights to trigger an export or import.
• For import: have the ZIP file ready. The maximum ZIP size supported is 500 MB. If your library is larger, work with your platform team on a direct file-system transfer.

Steps (export)

1. Contact your platform team or access the server-side admin tools.
2. Request a files only export (delivers just the original files, no metadata JSON) or a full export (delivers files plus database/media.json — use this if you plan to re-import into another SGEN site).
3. The export downloads as media_export_YYYY-MM-DD_HHmmss.zip to the browser.

Steps (import)

1. Obtain the ZIP archive from a prior SGEN export or a migration package.
2. Your platform team uploads the ZIP using the import tool and confirms the count of files imported vs. skipped.
3. After import completes, open the Media Library grid and confirm the imported files appear.

What success looks like

After export: a ZIP file downloads to your computer. Unzipping it reveals a folder structure matching your uploads directory plus a database/media.json file.

After import: the Media Library grid shows the imported files. Any page that referenced those files by their original path resolves correctly if the file paths were preserved by the export.

What to do if it does not work

• Export fails immediately — this typically means the uploads directory is empty or inaccessible. Confirm you have at least one file in the library before requesting an export.
• Import reports 0 files imported — confirm the ZIP contains files at the expected path structure. ZIP files produced by tools other than SGEN export may have a different internal layout.
• Files appear in the library after import but images are broken on pages — the file was imported but the URL path in the page content references a different location. Work with your platform team to reconcile the URL patterns.

Next step

After restoring a media library, review the grid in Browse the Media Library to confirm all files are visible, then spot-check your most important pages to verify images load correctly.