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Data transfer

The strapi transfer command streams your data from one Strapi instance to another Strapi instance. The transfer command uses strict schema matching, meaning your two Strapi instances need to be exact copies of each other except for the contained data. The default transfer command transfers your content (entities and relations), files (assets), project configuration, and schemas. The command allows you to transfer data:

  • from a local Strapi instance to a remote Strapi instance
  • from a remote Strapi instance to a local Strapi instance
✋ Caution
  • If you are using an SQLite database in the destination instance other database connections will be blocked while the transfer operation is running.
  • Admin users and API tokens are not transferred.
  • If you use websockets or Socket.io in your projects, the transfer command will fail. You will need to temporarily disable websockets or Socket.io or ensure that your websocket server is running on a different port than the Strapi server, or a on a specific route within Strapi to use the transfer command.

The CLI command consists of the following arguments:

OptionDescription
--toFull URL of the /admin endpoint on the destination Strapi instance
(e.g. --to https://my-beautiful-strapi-website/admin)
‑‑to‑tokenTransfer token from the Strapi destination instance.
--fromFull URL of the /admin endpoint of the remote Strapi instance to pull data from (e.g., --from https://my-beautiful-strapi-website/admin)
‑‑from‑tokenTransfer token from the Strapi source instance.
--forceAutomatically answer "yes" to all prompts, including potentially destructive requests, and run non-interactively.
--excludeExclude data using comma-separated data types. The available types are: content, files, and config.
--onlyInclude only these data. The available types are: content, files, and config.
--throttleTime in milliseconds to inject an artificial delay between the "chunks" during a transfer.
✋ Caution

Either --to or --from is required.

💡 Tips
  • Data transfers are authorized by transfer tokens, which are managed from the admin panel. From the admin panel, you can manage role-based permissions to tokens including view, create, read, regenerate and delete.
  • It might be convenient to store your transfer tokens into environment variables to avoid copying/pasting. Just ensure that these tokens are not pushed to public repositories.
⚠️ Warning

When using nginx and a server that proxies requests into a localhost, issues might occur. To prevent them, ensure all the headers are forwarded correctly by changing the configuration file in /etc/nginx/sites-available/yourdomain as follows:

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name <yourdomain>;
    location / {
        proxy_pass http://localhost:1337;
        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header Connection "Upgrade";
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        include proxy_params;
    }
}

Generate a transfer token​

☑️ Prerequisites

A salt transfer token should be defined in the admin panel configuration file.

The strapi transfer command requires a transfer token issued by the destination instance. To generate a transfer token in the admin panel use the instructions in the User Guide.

Setup and run the data transfer​

Initiating a data transfer depends on whether you want to push data to a remote instance or to pull data from the remote:

  1. Start the Strapi server for the destination instance.

  2. In a new terminal window, navigate to the root directory of the source instance.

  3. Run the following minimal command to initiate the transfer, ensuring destinationURL is the full URL to the admin panel (i.e., the URL includes the /admin part):

    yarn strapi transfer --to destinationURL

  4. Add the transfer token when prompted to do so.

  5. Answer Yes or No to the CLI prompt: "The transfer will delete all of the remote Strapi assets and its database. Are you sure you want to proceed?"

Bypass all transfer command line prompts​

When using the strapi transfer command, you are required to confirm that the transfer will delete the existing database contents. The --force flag allows you to bypass this prompt. This option is useful for implementing strapi transfer programmatically. You must pass the to-token option with the transfer token if you use the --force option.

✋ Caution

The --force option bypasses all warnings about content deletion.

Example: bypass the transfer command line prompts with --force​

yarn strapi transfer --to https://example.com/admin --to-token my-transfer-token --force

Include only specified data types during transfer​

The default strapi transfer command transfers your content (entities and relations), files (assets), project configuration, and schemas. The --only option allows you to transfer only the listed items by passing a comma-separated string with no spaces between the types. The available values are content, files, and config. Schemas are always transferred, as schema matching is used for strapi transfer.

Example: only transfer files​

yarn strapi transfer --to https://example.com/admin --only files

Exclude data types during transfer​

The default strapi transfer command transfers your content (entities and relations), files (assets), project configuration, and schemas. The --exclude option allows you to exclude content, files, and the project configuration by passing these items in a comma-separated string with no spaces between the types. You can't exclude the schemas, as schema matching is used for strapi transfer.

Example: exclude files from transfer​

yarn strapi transfer --to https://example.com/admin --exclude files
⚠️ Warning

Any types excluded from the transfer will be deleted in your destination instance. For example, if you exclude config the project configuration in your destination instance will be deleted.

Manage data transfer with environment variables​

The environment variable STRAPI_DISABLE_REMOTE_DATA_TRANSFER is available to disable remote data transfer. In addition to the RBAC permissions in the admin panel this can help you secure your Strapi application. To use STRAPI_DISABLE_REMOTE_DATA_TRANSFER you can add it to your .env file or preface the start script. See the following example:

STRAPI_DISABLE_REMOTE_DATA_TRANSFER=true yarn start

Additional details on using environment variables in Strapi are available in the Environment configurations documentation.

Test the transfer command locally​

The transfer command is not intended for transferring data between two local instances. The export and import commands were designed for this purpose. However, you might want to test transfer locally on test instances to better understand the functionality before using it with a remote instance. The following documentation provides a fully-worked example of the transfer process.

Create and clone a new Strapi project​

  1. Create a new Strapi project using the installation command:

    npx create-strapi-app@latest <project-name> --quickstart

  2. Create at least 1 content type in the project. See the Quick Start Guide if you need instructions on creating your first content type.

    ✋ Caution

    Do not add any data to your project at this step.

  3. Commit the project to a git repository:

    git init
    git add .
    git commit -m "first commit"

  4. Clone the project repository:

    cd .. # move to the parent directory
    git clone <path to created git repository>.git/ <new-instance-name>

Add data to the first Strapi instance​

  1. Return to the first Strapi instance and add data to the content type.
  2. Stop the server on the first instance.

Create a transfer token​

  1. Navigate to the second Strapi instance and run the build and start commands in the root directory:
yarn build && yarn start
  1. Register an admin user.
  2. Create and copy a transfer token.
  3. Leave the server running.

Transfer your data​

  1. Return the the first Strapi instance.
  2. In the terminal run the strapi transfer command:
yarn strapi transfer --to http://localhost:1337/admin
  1. When prompted, apply the transfer token.
  2. When the transfer is complete you can return to the second Strapi instance and see that the content is successfully transferred.
💡 Tip

In some cases you might receive a connection refused error targeting localhost. Try changing the address to http://127.0.0.1:1337/admin.