Common Problems People Face When They Migrate to LearnDash (And How to Avoid Them)

When you Migrate to LearnDash from another LMS platform like LifterLMS, LearnDash Cloud, or any other learning platform, it can feel like you’re upgrading your whole eLearning site. You get the power of WordPress LMS plugins, full control over your LearnDash site, and the flexibility of the LearnDash plugin and WordPress themes working together.

But the Migration Project itself is where most headaches appear.

If the data migration isn’t planned properly, you can end up with broken LearnDash courses, missing course files, and confused learners wondering what happened to their course progress. Let’s walk through the most common issues people hit when moving an online course to LearnDash and how to make that transition as smooth as possible.

1. Messy Course Structure After Migration

One of the first things people notice on the new site is that the course structure doesn’t match the old LMS. Maybe the previous Learning Management System had modules and units, and now LearnDash expects a hierarchy like

• Course → Lesson → Topic → Quiz

If the mapping isn’t done properly, you can see things like:

• Lessons attached to the wrong course page
• A single lesson showing up in multiple places
• Topics not linked correctly in the Course Builder
• Course Categories and course meta not consistent with how they were before

Sometimes, even the course ID and course content table don’t line up with what you had before, especially if custom fields or special course data were used heavily.

How to reduce the pain here

Before you touch the LearnDash Migration add-on (often called the LearnDash Migration add), audit your old course structure:

• Note how your online course levels are named (modules, units, sections, etc.).
• Decide how those map into LearnDash courses, lessons, topics, and quizzes.
• Check which custom fields and course author status values matter and need to be kept.

Once migrated, open a few LearnDash courses and click through the course progression yourself. Make sure the course structure flows the way a learner would expect and that the course status changes properly as you move through content.

2. User Progress and Enrollments Don’t Line Up

Another huge problem area is user progress and course enrollment.

There’s a big difference between:

• Course data / course content: lessons, quizzes, course files, course meta
• Progress data/user profiles: course progress, user progress, quiz attempts, Course Status, email address, login details

On many platforms, the content migrates, but the detailed progress data doesn’t. That can lead to:

• Students logging in and seeing 0% course progression when they were halfway done
• Course Enrollment missing for certain users
• Certificates and completed courses not showing in user profiles

How to handle it

Decide early what’s critical:

• Do you need exact user progress and every quiz attempt, or is it enough that users just have access to the right LearnDash courses?
• Is old progress needed for analytics tools and sales data reports, or only going forward?

If you really must keep progress data, you’ll probably need more advanced data migration: careful handling of database info, course content table structures, and maybe custom scripts. For simpler cases, you can:

• Bring over users with the correct course enrollment.
• Keep old progress in a backup or report
• Start “fresh” progress tracking on the new LearnDash site

3. Missing Media and Course Files

Your learning experiences are usually more than just text. You probably have:

• Video lessons
• PDF worksheets and other course files
• Images and slide decks
• Sometimes even math equation editing through a third-party plugin

During migration, these assets can be left behind if they’re not handled separately. The result:

• Broken download links on the course page
• Missing images inside a single lesson
• Embedded videos that no longer play

This often happens when files live on a different domain or when URLs change and nobody updates them.

How to handle it

• Make sure your media library is included in the migration project.
• If you’re changing domains, run a search-and-replace on old URLs in your course content.
• Double-check lessons with heavy media, math equation editing, or special files.

A quick pass through some key courses will help you catch data loss or broken course files before learners do.

4. Memberships, Payments, and Subscriptions Breaking

Many eLearning sites don’t just sell one-off courses. They rely on:

• Subscriptions and bundle courses
• Coupon code campaigns
• Complex Payment Settings
• Integration with WooCommerce or other e-commerce tools
• Email notifications when someone enrolls, cancels, or finishes a course

When you move to a new learning platform or LearnDash site, those connections don’t magically rebuild themselves. If they’re not reconfigured, you can see:

• Users paying but not receiving Course Enrollment
• Old subscriptions not syncing properly
• Sales Data and analytics tools no longer matching what’s happening in LearnDash

How to handle it

On your old LMS platform, write down how access works:

• Which products or subscriptions grant access to which LearnDash courses or bundled courses?
• Which coupon code rules matter for your promotions?
• How are email notifications triggered now?

On the new site or staging site, rebuild your payment settings and connections so that they unlock the correct course data in LearnDash. Then run a few test orders to confirm Course Status and Course Enrollment behave correctly.

5. Performance and Scaling Issues

As your Number of users grows, your LearnDash site becomes more demanding than a simple blog. Logged-in users, Course Status tracking, and analytics tools all add load on the server.

Common symptoms:

• Slow browsing experience on course pages
• Quizzes taking too long to submit
• Admin screens, especially reporting, timing out

This can be made worse by heavy page builders, too many third-party plugin add-ons, or poorly optimized WordPress themes.

How to handle it

• Use decent hosting for your LearnDash plugin and WordPress LMS setup, not the cheapest shared plan.
• Keep your staging site around to test performance changes before pushing them live.
• Be careful with page builders on core course pages; avoid extreme layouts that slow down the browsing experience.
• Review third-party plugin usage and disable anything you don’t really need.

A small load test with a few users logged in is often enough to show whether your new site is ready.

6. Theme and Plugin Conflicts

Because LearnDash runs on WordPress, it plays with a lot of WordPress themes and WordPress LMS plugins. That’s a huge advantage, but it also means conflicts can happen.

After migration, you might see:

• Broken layouts on the course page or dashboard
• Buttons not working in the Course Builder
• Login details redirects acting weird
• Issues caused by use of cookies being overridden by another plugin

Often, it’s a third-party plugin or a heavily customized theme causing trouble.

Troubleshooting Basics

If something looks off:

1. Test with a more basic theme on your staging site.
2. Disable non-essential plugins, then reactivate them one by one.
3. Check if the issue appears only when a specific plugin or Page Builder is active.

Once you know the conflict, you can decide whether to replace that plugin, adjust the theme, or tweak settings so your learning platform stays stable.

7. Confusing Experience for Learners

Even if the tech is right, the human side can still be rough.

From the learner’s point of view, your eLearning site has suddenly changed:

• The login page looks different
• The dashboard and course page layout has changed
• Menus, Course Status indicators, and navigation links are in new places

If nobody prepares them, users will flood you with “Where is my course?” emails.

How to handle it

• Keep navigation simple and obvious: “My Courses,” “Dashboard,” etc.
• Make sure login details work the same way or better, and clearly show where users can update their email address or password.
• Explain any big changes in a short “what’s new” section or FAQ.

Even a small Acquisition FAQ page that answers common questions about the new LearnDash site can calm people down: where to find course progress, how email notifications work now, and what to do if they can’t see their LearnDash courses.

8. Planning for a Smooth Transition

Most of these issues become smaller if you treat the migration like a real project instead of just hitting “import” and hoping for the best.

A simple preparation checklist for a seamless transition:

• Back up your old learning management system, including database info and the course content table.
• Document key course data like course author status, course ID structure, and important custom fields.
• Set up a staging site and install the LearnDash plugin, testing core features there first.
• Migrate a few representative courses and user profiles as a pilot.
• Check course progression, course status, course structure, and course files carefully.
• Verify payment settings, sales data reporting, subscriptions, and email notifications.
• Make sure your use of cookies and privacy notices still matches your new stack.

Once you’re happy with the staging site, you can repeat the steps on the live LearnDash site with much more confidence in a smooth transition.

Migrating to LearnDash is a big move for any eLearning site, but it doesn’t have to be a disaster. When you understand where data loss, broken course structure, and user progress issues usually appear, you can plan around them. With a bit of structure, testing, and patience, you end up with a stronger learning platform, better learning experiences for your students, and a LearnDash site that’s ready to grow with you.