Moving from the Email Log plugin: bring your history with you

If you’re already using the Email Log plugin and want to move to Adminkeep’s email log, you don’t have to start with an empty list. Adminkeep can read the Email Log plugin’s table directly and copy its history in, so the emails you already have on file stay on file.

This guide covers what the copy brings across, what it can’t, and how to run it either way: a button in the admin screen or one WP-CLI command.

Before you start

Turn on Email Log in Adminkeep first: Settings → Adminkeep, switch on Email Log in the Email group, and save. The copy writes into this log, so it needs to be on. Leave the Email Log plugin active too — the copy reads its table, so it has to still be there to read from.

Copy from the admin screen

Open Adminkeep’s Email Log screen, its own item in the admin menu. While the Email Log plugin is active, it has a menu item of the same name right next to it; Adminkeep’s is the lower of the two, with a slightly different envelope icon. (If you have moved Adminkeep’s log under Tools, open it from the Tools menu.) The screen shows a box.

Press Copy from Email Log. It reads what the Email Log plugin has stored, brings in what it can, and shows a summary: how many were copied, how many were skipped as too old, and how many couldn’t be saved. The summary also reminds you that both plugins are now logging every email twice, and suggests deactivating Email Log.

Copy from WP-CLI

If you’d rather run it from the command line:

wp adminkeep email-log import email-log

Add --dry-run first if you want to see the numbers without writing anything:

wp adminkeep email-log import email-log --dry-run

Either way prints the same kind of summary as the button: how many were imported, how many were skipped as older than your retention setting, and how many were left out if the log was already full.

What comes across, and what doesn’t

The copy reads the Email Log plugin’s own table and never writes to it — deactivating or even removing that plugin afterwards doesn’t touch the copy already sitting in Adminkeep.

A few rules carry over from Adminkeep’s own log, so the copied history behaves the same way the rest of it does:

• Anything older than your retention setting is skipped. If Adminkeep is set to keep 30 days, an email from three months ago in the Email Log plugin isn’t copied — Adminkeep would have deleted it by now anyway.
• Sign-in links are removed on the way in. Password-reset, sign-in and account-activation links are replaced with [link removed], the same as any email Adminkeep logs itself.
• The 10,000-row cap holds. If the copy would push the log past that, the oldest rows are left out rather than the log growing past its limit.
• Running it again only brings what’s new. Adminkeep remembers where it left off, so pressing the button or running the command a second time doesn’t recopy anything already brought across — useful if you keep both plugins running for a while before switching over fully.

A few things the copy can’t recover, because the Email Log plugin’s own table never recorded them in the first place:

• No attachment names. The Email Log plugin doesn’t store what a logged email was attached with, so copied rows show none.
• From is blank unless a From header was set. If nothing in your setup ever set an explicit From address, the Email Log plugin never recorded one to copy.
• Dates read in your site’s current time zone. If your site’s time zone has changed since those emails were logged, the copied dates shift by the difference.

None of this is a fault in the Email Log plugin — it’s simply what it kept and what it didn’t. Adminkeep copies as much of that history as it can and is upfront about the rest.

When to deactivate Email Log

Once you’ve copied what you need and Adminkeep’s own Email Log is switched on, deactivate the Email Log plugin. With both active, every new email is logged twice — once by each plugin — which is harmless but unnecessary. There’s no rush: keep both running for as long as you want to compare the two, and deactivate whenever you’re satisfied Adminkeep has what you need.

If you ever want to run the copy again later, for a fresh batch of history, it’s still there: the button stays as long as the Email Log plugin is active, and the WP-CLI command works whenever Email Log is switched on.

Questions people ask

Can I move my Email Log plugin history into Adminkeep?

Yes. With Email Log switched on in Adminkeep and the Email Log plugin still active, press Copy from Email Log on Adminkeep's Email Log screen, or run wp adminkeep email-log import email-log from WP-CLI. Adding --dry-run to the command shows the numbers without writing anything.

Does copying email history out of the Email Log plugin change or delete its data?

No. The copy reads the Email Log plugin's own table and does not write to it. Deactivating or removing that plugin afterwards does not touch the history that was already copied.

Why are some emails missing after importing from the Email Log plugin?

Emails older than the retention setting are skipped, and the log holds at most 10,000 rows, so the oldest rows are left out if the copy would go past that. Attachment names are not copied because the Email Log plugin does not store them, and From is blank unless a From header was set.

Should I deactivate the Email Log plugin after copying its history?

Yes, once you have copied what you need. With both plugins active, every new email is logged twice, which is harmless but unnecessary. There is no rush: running the copy again only brings across what is new, so you can keep both running while you compare them.