Solved: Moving SharePoint 2010 Designer Workflows between Sites

In man occasions you would be faced by the need to move workflows you developed using SharePoint designer from one site to another. This might be the case if for example you developed and tested the workflow on a testing environment and now wants to move to the production environment without the need to re-develop the workflow.

The steps to perform this is rather simple:

  1. Export the workflow to Visio.
  2. Edit the VWI archive and delete the configuration file.
  3. Import the workflow back to your destination site.

So open the SharePoint designer and open the source site. click on the workflows link on the left and then the workflow you want to move. Click on the ribbon on export to Visio button.

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Now rename the file exported (VWI file) to be a ZIP file and open it with Windows Explorer. You will find a file named “workflow.xoml.wfconfig.xml”

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Just delete this file. Now rename the archive back to be a VWI file.

Now open the destination site and click the import from Visio and browse to the edited VWI file. This will allow you to re-associate your workflow as if it was created or exported from Visio rather than the designer while preserving any development made in the workflow it self.