Running a manual import, and stopping one

A manual import runs from the import task screen: save the task, click Start Import, and watch the progress line. The work itself happens in the background queue, not in the page you are looking at, which is why a browser tab can be closed without stopping the run and why a stalled run needs to be checked in a different place.

Running an import

1. Open the task under Import Tasks and confirm the filters are what you want.
2. Click Publish or Update. An unsaved change is not part of the run, and on a brand new task the buttons do not appear at all until it is saved once.
3. Set How Many to import. Use 0 for everything found, or a small number such as 25 to prove the setup before committing to a large run.
4. Click Start Import. The status line changes and the progress bar starts to fill.
5. Wait for the completed message. The run requests listings from your MLS in batches of 25, writes each property, then moves to the next batch.

Expected result: the progress count reaches the total, the task reports the import as completed, and the properties are visible under your theme’s property post type.

Stopping an import

Stop Import raises a stop flag that the background run checks between batches. It does not kill the process mid write, so expect it to finish the batch in progress before stopping, which can take a few seconds on a slow feed.

Stopping is safe. Properties already imported stay, nothing is rolled back, and starting the task again picks the work up from the MLS rather than duplicating what exists. Listings are matched on their MLS identifier, so a second run updates what is already there.

When a run appears stuck

The import is queued through Action Scheduler, which ships with the plugin. Its screen is the first place to look when nothing seems to be happening.

1. Go to Tools, then Scheduled Actions in the wp-admin sidebar.
2. Search for mlsimport and read the status. Pending means queued, In-progress means running, Failed means it stopped with an error you can open and read.
3. A long list of pending actions from other plugins means the queue is backed up rather than broken. The import starts when it reaches the front.
4. Duplicate pending actions for the same task, created minutes apart, mean earlier runs were killed before finishing. Cancel the duplicates before starting again.

One action processes every batch of a task, so the unit of work is as long as the whole task. A single import action is allowed to run for up to 3,000 seconds before the queue treats it as failed, which is deliberately generous.

If it does not work

1. The progress bar never moves and Scheduled Actions shows the action pending. WordPress cron is not firing. Check whether DISABLE_WP_CRON is set in wp-config.php and whether a real server cron exists.
2. The run always dies at the same point. This is usually the web server request timeout rather than PHP, and it does not appear in Site Health. Ask your host for the error log around that time, and look for a read timeout on wp-cron.php. Running the queue through WP-CLI avoids it, because the shell has no web request limit.
3. A run of 25 listings works and a run of 2,000 does not. The server cannot process the whole task inside its limits. Split the task into narrower ones by city, county or price.
4. The task shows a count higher than the total. Two runs were writing the same task at once. Let the current one finish, then start a single run.

Frequently asked questions

Can I run two import tasks at the same time?

You can start them, but do not. Two runs compete for the same memory and can process overlapping listings, which produces wrong counts and stalled runs. Let one finish before starting the next.

Does stopping an import delete anything?

No. Stopping halts the run and leaves everything already imported in place. Deletion is handled by the separate daily reconciliation pass, which never looks at whether an import run finished.

My import completed but fewer properties arrived than the count promised. Why?

The count is the number of listings matching your filters in the MLS, and some of them may already exist on the site from another task, in which case they are updated rather than added. If the difference is large, check the log for the batch where the run stopped early.

Do I need to re-run an import after fixing cron?

Yes, once. The hourly sync only updates listings that already exist locally, so anything missed while cron was down is not filled in retroactively. A manual run of each task brings the site current.

Related

1. Avoiding overlapping import tasks
2. Cron not working: a checklist
3. Import History and the activity log
4. What an import task is

If a run keeps stopping at the same point, send us the logs and your host’s error log and we will identify the limit that is stopping it.