Mixed feelings because posts import deletes categories :(

I am not the type giving 1 star reviews just because sth doesn’t work while the rest does. So for now, 3 stars. In case s.o. points out a plugin correction/feature I’d happily change that rating though.
So why 3 stars not five or whatever? Because when you export via wp an xml file that includes all your posts with associated categories, and you now use/test/try WP ALL IMPORT…
…you assume that ANY import to EXISTING POSTS will never DELETE wp items that you aren’t even importing ie over-writing! But this plugin does/did! And worse, that is NOT even logical based on the plugin’s own design:

WP ALL IMPORT everywhere(?) imports only what you “drag & drop” because you WANT it imported. EXCEPT for categories (at a minimum, I haven’t tried tags etc).

I had not chosen to import categories because they stayed the same! I ONLY updated post content, which in the xml file is the item <content:encoded>.
And yet, I noticed that ALL CATEGORY ASSOCIATIONS GOT DELETED by the plugin when it imported the post content to EXISTING posts!

Immensely shocked, I looked through the (great!) help docu the authors provide, here
http://www.wpallimport.com/documentation/taxonomies/overview/
because guess what, exactly the import of … CATEGORIES again, yes! … is everything but intuitive:

– “Each Post has multiple Categories” – yes, easy
– “Separated by” – what??
– Looking at the exported xml file, I give you what “separates” the categories:

What, you didn’t see it? A simple RETURN separates the categories, look:
<category domain=”category” nicename=”2-inch-heels”><![CDATA[2 Inch Heels]]></category>
<category domain=”category” nicename=”3-inch-heels”><![CDATA[3 Inch Heels]]></category>

Now tell me, how do you “drag” that RETURN into the provided “drop” field?
Prefer typing too? Fine. How do you type that RETURN into the provided “drop” field?

I can’t figure out either, and their linked docu sadly doesn’t help there where you need it.

Also, do they expect me to “drag & drop” or to type all categories individually? When the xml file so nicely lists them out(!), why can’t an otherwise at first sight excellent plugin like this READ the xml file’s category node without further ado??
I don’t get it! Like I said, not intuitive this part. While everything else is, it seems. Pity!

I am left wondering if any of the many 5 star reviewers here have even noticed that their category associations got DELETED from the posts when they too didn’t import all categories because they too thought “why would I? I didn’t change them!”.

And get that, you have to import ALL categories (if you can figure out HOW, I can’t!) because else the plugin DELETES the ones you leave out. It’s beyond me!

Any plugin so powerful to import into existing posts (or pages) should of course NOT DELETE what you don’t import, what you don’t overwrite. To DELETE existing content deserves a special, its own, tickbox (at the very minimum!), like “Delete any not imported category, tag,… associations?”. That’s plain common sense, or not?

To wrap up my review, if the authors could give the category import some attention and fix that, I feel this plugin WP ALL IMPORT would truly deserve 5 stars, hey, I would probably buy it! But the way it is, it has wrecked HAVOC on our site! 🙁