Out of all the eCommerce platforms available, Magento is definitely one of the most well-known. Nevertheless, we must say some of its features can be tricky for beginners – especially the Magento product export process. So if you are feeling a bit lost there, we’re here to help!
Our expert guide will discuss:
- How to export your products in Magento 2
- 4 common problems during the export
- 3 tools for advanced product export
- Frequently asked questions
Without further ado, let’s get the ball rolling!
How to Perform Magento Product Export 2026
This section will detail straightforward steps to let Magento export products by category for you. Please note that since Magento 1 has no longer been supported since June 2020, our guide below will focus exclusively on Magento 2, based on the latest version, Magento 2.4.9.
All in all, you just need to complete the following tasks:
Step 1. Choose Entity Type and export format
First, go to ‘System’ on the Admin sidebar, then navigate to Data Transfer → Export. From here, you can choose your Entity Type from the following options:
- Products
- Advanced Pricing
- Customers Main File
- Customer Finances
- Stock Sources
- Customer Addresses
You may enable the ‘Fields Enclosure’ option if your Magento 2 export database includes special characters. This wraps those characters in an escape sequence so they are not misread during the transfer. As for the ‘Export File Format’, CSV is the only built-in option, so simply keep it as is.
Step 2. Customize Entity attributes
In most cases, the ‘Entity attributes’ section will display attributes alphabetically (e.g., Activity > Category Gear > Categories > Climate > Collar,…). You can search, sort, and filter the attributes as needed:
- To export only specific data, enter the necessary values in the ‘Filter’ column for each attribute. (e.g., only export Warm and Sunny values in the Climate attribute).
- To exclude particular attributes from the export, check the ‘Exclude’ box next to those attributes.
Step 3. Let Magento export product to Excel (CSV file)
Once you are finished with the Entity attributes, scroll down and click the ‘Continue’ button to start the Magento product export. The export request is sent to the message queue, then the file is processed and saved in the var/export/ directory (provided your cron job is active). When it is ready, the file appears in the list at the bottom of the Export page, where you can download it.
And that’s it! After the Magento data export, you may now open, save, and edit the CSV file in an Excel spreadsheet. If necessary, you can even re-import it into your store.
Moving Your Magento Products to Shopify?
Skip the CSV cleanup. LitExtension transfers your products, customers, and orders from Magento to Shopify automatically. Try a free demo to see your data on the new store first.
Magento Product Export: Troubleshooting Common Problems
Our team just provided a very straightforward guide on how to export data from Magento. Nevertheless, we understand that unexpected technical issues can still pop up along the way! Therefore, in this section, we’ll discuss some of the most common problems you might face and how to handle them.
Exported products .csv file does not appear
This issue is linked to a known export bug that first appeared in version 2.3.2 and occurs when the “Add Secret Key to URLs” option is enabled. To resolve it, you can disable this option by following these steps:
- Go to Stores → Configuration → Advanced → Admin → Security in the Admin panel.
- Change the ‘Add Secret Key to URLs’ setting to No, then click ‘Save Config’ to save the changes.
- Clear the cache by navigating to System → Tools → Cache Management or by running the command bin/magento cache:clean.
If that doesn’t work, then another alternative is to manually run the export consumer: bin/magento queue:consumers:start exportProcessor. Once the consumer has processed the request, your Magento 2 export products CSV file should appear in the grid. To avoid repeating this step, make sure this consumer runs regularly through your cron jobs.
Export issues on older Adobe Commerce versions
If your store still runs Adobe Commerce 2.3.0 to 2.4.1, you may run into two other well-known export bugs. Adobe has released a quality patch for each, which you can apply with the Quality Patches Tool (QPT):
- MDVA-31168 (requires QPT 1.0.10): The product export file does not show in Admin, and the file saved on the server only contains the header row instead of your products.
- MDVA-31242 (requires QPT 1.0.8): On B2B stores, filtering the Sales → Orders grid by the Company Name column and exporting it to CSV leads to a blank error page.
To check the patch status, run ./vendor/bin/magento-patches status. Then, apply the patch you need with the following command, replacing MDVA-31168 with MDVA-31242 if necessary:
./vendor/bin/magento-patches apply MDVA-31168
After applying the patch, don’t forget to clear the cache so the changes can take effect:
./bin/magento cache:clean
Note that both issues have been fixed since version 2.4.2. So if you are on a newer release like Magento 2.4.9, you don’t need these patches. Instead, check your cron jobs and the export consumer as explained above.
Import and export paths blocked
Sometimes, your Magento product export might fail if the folder and file permissions aren’t correctly set up. You won’t be able to perform the necessary export actions on the file systems! Keep in mind that Magento needs write access to the var/ directory, where export files are stored.
But no worries, as adjusting these permissions in cPanel is a breeze. Simply right-click on the folder, then select the ‘Change permissions’ option in the pop-up menu.
Text values exceeding the character limit
If you plan to re-import the exported file, long text values can cause errors during the import process. Magento checks each value against the attribute type: text field attributes (such as product name, URL key, or meta title) accept up to 255 characters, while text area attributes like the description and short description accept up to about 65,000 characters. Values over the limit trigger an “exceeded max length” error.
To prevent this, keep text field values within 255 characters. Note that spaces between words also count toward this character limit. As for the “short description”, it is only meant to be a brief teaser for your main product page, so we still recommend keeping it short and phrasing it carefully.
Pro Tip: If you are exporting data because you plan to move your store to Shopify, a manual CSV export might not cut it. LitExtension offers an automated Magento to Shopify migration service that helps you transfer your products, customers, and orders accurately and safely without the manual spreadsheet hassle.
Extra Tips for Magento Product Export
We hope the troubleshooting guide above has streamlined your Magento product export process. And if you’re looking to save even more time and effort, here are a few additional tips you might find helpful:
Backup your database
Before performing any significant operations, having a backup is always crucial! Accidental deletion or data corruption (or any other unexpected errors) might occur during this process. Hence, a recent backup ensures you can restore your store to its previous state if something goes wrong.
You can always back up your Magento database through your hosting provider’s control panel or using command-line tools like ‘mysqldump’ for MySQL databases. Note that Magento’s old built-in backup tool has been deprecated and is disabled by default, so a hosting snapshot or a database dump is the safer choice.
Test with a small data set first
Sometimes, running a full Magento product export at once might lead to unexpected issues or incorrect data in the final CSV file – which is all the more likely if this is your first-ever Magento export. Hence, we suggest testing with a small subset to confirm that the export settings, filters, and attribute selections are correctly configured.
For example, in the Entity attributes section, you may apply filters by SKU or product ID to export only a specific category or a small group of products. After that, review the CSV file to ensure everything looks correct before proceeding with the full export.
Check and clean up data before exporting
From our experience, dirty/inconsistent data often leads to huge problems after a Magento product export if you plan to re-import the data later. Cases in point: missing attributes, incorrect values, duplicate entries, and more.
That’s why a pre-import review is very important. You should double-check everything and fix all the incorrectly-categorized products or missing fields if necessary. In case you’re in a hurry, consider using Magento’s ‘Update attributes’ bulk action (Catalog → Products → Actions) to clean up data across multiple products at once.
3 Recommended Tools for Advanced Magento Product Export
In addition to the standard product export steps we just demonstrated, there are also advanced apps that can streamline the process even further! If you’re unsure how to pick a suitable Magento 2 product export extension/app, our team is here to help with recommendations:
Import and Export Premium for Magento 2 by Amasty
If you want to find a powerful extension designed specifically for Magento 2, then this one’s for you! It lets you export and import all key entities in Magento to ensure your store’s data is always accurate and reliable. It also supports multiple file formats, including CSV, XML, XLSX, ODS, and JSON, plus Google Sheets as an import source. Even better, there are extra advanced features you can look forward to, such as:
- Generating sample files and validating import files (to ensure your data is in the correct format)
- Creating profiles for regular automated updates via cron or events
- Setting up one-time transfers when organizing or restructuring your store
- Making data modifications directly within the extension (text, numeric, and custom modifiers).
Currently, the Premium package starts at $699. If you only need a one-time transfer or partial automation, Amasty also offers lighter packages: Import and Export ($199) and Import and Export Pro ($499). Adobe Commerce and Cloud editions cost more.
Import Export Products Extension For Magento 2 by Magebees
If you’re searching for a more budget-friendly alternative to the Amasty extension, then this one could be the perfect fit! It just charges $99 for the Open Source version or $198 for Cloud and Enterprise, including 1 year of free support and lifetime free updates. With it, you can:
- Import and export all types of products in your Magento store using a CSV file
- Update or import products for specific fields
- Update product descriptions, images, prices, and stock levels
- Move products from an older version of your Magento store (e.g., Magento 1) into Magento 2 (this requires Magebees’ companion Magento 1 extension).
LitExtension
Although the two Magento product export extensions mentioned above prove incredibly helpful, they are only designed for Magento 2.
That means if you plan to import your products to a different platform from Magento (like Shopify), those extensions won’t do! You’ll end up spending a lot of time adjusting your export files to the new platform’s requirements. And without prior experience, technical challenges during this process will be inevitable.
Therefore, a much better alternative would be to use migration services from LitExtension, the #1 eCommerce Migration Tool in the field with 15+ years of experience and 300,000+ migrations completed. Products aside, you can also transfer customers, orders, coupons, CMS pages, blog posts, and many other data types to your new store – a much more inclusive option than Amasty or Magebees!
Currently, there are two LitExtension packages for you to choose from:
- Automated Migration (from $29): This package is ideal if you prefer to handle the migration yourself. The process is simple: set up your current store (Magento) as the source cart and the new platform as the target cart, select the data you want to transfer, and start the migration! We also offer a free demo (up to 20 entities of each data type) so you can try out the process before fully committing. If your store has fewer than 100 entities, the full migration is completely free.
- All-in-One Migration (from $129, popular): For those who want a stress-free, cost-saving migration with little to no downtime, an all-in-one service is clearly the best choice. Just share your requirements with us, and a dedicated Personal Assistant will manage the entire migration process for you once you make your payment! Any additional options that usually require extra fees (e.g., Strip HTML tags, 301 redirects,…) will be covered at zero cost, along with 2 free re-migrations.
Both packages are one-time payments, with no monthly subscription.
Magento 2 Export Products: FAQs
How do I export a product from Magento?
To export data, go to the Admin sidebar and click on System → Data Transfer → Export. From there, choose your Entity Type, select the Entity Attributes, and set the export format. Once everything’s set, simply click Continue to complete the Magento product export process.
Where are Magento export files stored?
By default, any files you export from Magento will be saved in the /var/export folder. If your store uses remote storage, the files are saved in the import_export/export folder of that storage instead.
How do I get all product details in Magento 2?
To retrieve product details by product ID, create a block class like the one below (replace Vendor\Module with your own module name):
<?php
namespace Vendor\Module\Block;
class Product extends \Magento\Framework\View\Element\Template
{
/**
* @var \Magento\Catalog\Api\ProductRepositoryInterface
*/
protected $productRepository;
/**
* Constructor
*
* @param \Magento\Framework\View\Element\Template\Context $context
* @param \Magento\Catalog\Api\ProductRepositoryInterface $productRepository
* @param array $data
*/
public function __construct(
\Magento\Framework\View\Element\Template\Context $context,
\Magento\Catalog\Api\ProductRepositoryInterface $productRepository,
array $data = []
) {
$this->productRepository = $productRepository;
parent::__construct($context, $data);
}
/**
* Get Product by Id
* @param int $id
* @return \Magento\Catalog\Api\Data\ProductInterface
*/
public function getProduct($id)
{
return $this->productRepository->getById($id);
}
}
After that, use the below code to call inside the template file:
$product_id = 1;
$product = $block->getProduct($product_id);
echo $product->getName(); // product name
echo $product->getSku(); // product sku
And that’s it!
Final Words
Our team has discussed ways to complete the Magento product export smoothly, with clear instructions and tips for solving common technical issues.
Still, if you’re looking to export products as part of a store migration, a comprehensive solution will be your best bet to ensure everything transfers smoothly to the new platform.
And LitExtension – #1 eCommerce Migration Tool can certainly help you with that. With 15+ years of experience, 300,000+ migrations, and positive feedback from 200,000+ customers, we will make sure your Magento migration is smooth and completely stress-free!
Let Experts Handle Your Magento Migration
Our All-in-One Migration service takes care of everything from setup to testing, with all additional options included. Book a free consultation to plan your move.
