Transferring Data to new server

That’s not the best way to move it. If you still have access to the old data, try moving the files and database instead: https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Moving_WordPress

i will certainly try! thank you so much.

I do not think that is possible at wordpress.com, so you might have to ask there about how to try to get everything out.

You’re welcome!

Oh, are you moving from WordPress.com? I didn’t see that disclosed in the original post.

yes, i am! should i use this same link?

Moving from wordpress.com to www.ads-software.com, Please try reviewing these resources:
– https://en.support.wordpress.com/moving-a-blog/#moving-to-wordpress-org
– https://wordpress.tv/2012/02/13/georgiana-laudi-sandy-sidhu-moving-from-wordpress-com-to-wordpress-org/

– For further help, please visit the wordpress.com support Forum: https://en.forums.wordpress.com/

i am incredibly confused. my old site was hosted via wordpress.com, so are the instructions different now? ‘Backup using cPanel X’ doesn’t seem like it will work for me. please help.

These are the instructions you should be following: https://en.support.wordpress.com/moving-to-a-self-hosted-wordpress-site/

When moving from WordPress.com, exporting as XML is the only way.

My old blog had 462 posts, but after I imported the XML files into my new site only 390 posts appear.

If you find no other way to export/import the missing 72 posts, you could put the two sites side-by-side in browser tabs and then copy-and-paste from one to the other. That would definitely be a bit tedious, but should work at least for the text and then you could deal with uploads separately.