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Do you offer a lot of similar courses? Wouldn’t it be great if you could just clone one and start from a template? Well, thanks to a few different LearnDash add-ons, now you can.
There are 3 plugins that offer the ability to clone LearnDash content, and each one provides a different set of features. One plugin can clone just about everything (with one caveat), but it’s not free. The other 2 options are free, but each have some drawbacks. I’ll evaluate the options & help you choose the best one for your situation.
Short on time? Here’s the summary:
- If you already use Uncanny LearnDash Toolkit Pro, it will clone all types of LearnDash content. Use it. It’s the best all-around option. Cost: $149
- If you only need to clone lessons, topics and/or certificates, go with the Duplicate Post plugin. Cost: Free
- Tight on cash? Try the Content Cloner for LearnDash from WisdmLabs for courses & groups, then use Duplicate Post for lessons & topics. Cost: Free
TIP
Use these tools as a way to create reusable templates. Create a course (or lesson or topic or certificate, etc.) named “TEMPLATE.” Check all the settings & input all the info you use most often. Then use one of these LearnDash clone tools to clone it each time you create new content.
| Content Type | Clone Method | Content Cloned |
|---|---|---|
| Courses | Yoast Duplicate Post (free) |
✅ Content ✅ Featured Image ✅ Categories & Tags ✅ Course Settings ✅ Course Grid Settings ❌ DOES NOT properly associate lessons, topics & quizzes with the course |
| Uncanny Toolkit Pro (premium) |
✅ Everything – Associates lessons, topics & quizzes with the course if shared course steps is enabled |
|
| LearnDash Content Cloner (free) |
✅ Everything – Creates completely separate copies of lessons, topics & quizzes that you can edit independently (when shared course steps is disabled) |
|
| Lessons | Yoast Duplicate Post (free) |
✅ Content ✅ Featured Image ✅ Categories & Tags ✅ Lesson Settings |
| Uncanny Toolkit Pro (premium) |
✅ Same as Duplicate Post | |
| LearnDash Content Cloner (free) |
❌ | |
| Topics | Yoast Duplicate Post (free) |
✅ Content ✅ Featured Image ✅ Categories & Tags ✅ Topic Settings |
| Uncanny Toolkit Pro (premium) |
✅ Same as Duplicate Post | |
| LearnDash Content Cloner (free) |
❌ | |
| Quizzes | Yoast Duplicate Post (free) |
❌ Known to have issues. Use Uncanny Toolkit Pro. |
| Uncanny Toolkit Pro (premium) |
✅ Everything ✅ Also copies quiz questions and associates them with the new quiz |
|
| LearnDash Content Cloner (free) |
❌ | |
| Questions | Yoast Duplicate Post (free) |
May or may not copy all question settings (not tested) |
| Uncanny Toolkit Pro (premium) |
✅ Everything | |
| LearnDash Content Cloner (free) |
❌ | |
| Certificates | Yoast Duplicate Post (free) |
✅ Content ✅ Featured Image ✅ Certificate Options |
| Uncanny Toolkit Pro (premium) |
✅ Same as Duplicate Post | |
| LearnDash Content Cloner (free) |
❌ | |
| Groups | Yoast Duplicate Post (free) |
✅ Content ❌ Group management or enrollment settings |
| Uncanny Toolkit Pro (premium) |
✅ Everything | |
| LearnDash Content Cloner (free) |
✅ Group content ✅ Group courses ❌ Group settings |
RECOMMENDATION
If you have more than one of these plugins active at a time, you will see multiple clone links on your LearnDash listing pages. It could get confusing. I recommend only having one active at a time (but feel free to switch them on/off).
Clone LearnDash Courses
Cloning courses is a little more challenging than you may think. While there are several free content cloning and duplication plugins for WordPress, they won’t work for LearnDash courses because of the lesson, topic & quiz associations that courses have.
You can use either of these plugins to clone courses.
- Uncanny Toolkit Pro for LearnDash
- LearnDash Content Cloner by WisdmLabs
There’s an important difference between the two:
- The Uncanny Toolkit Pro module does not make duplicate copies of lessons/topics/quizzes. If you have Shared Course Steps disabled, it will not copy any of your course content. If you enable Shared Course Steps, it will use the same lessons/topics/quizzes in your copied course.
- The WisdmLabs Content Cloner will actually make duplicate copies of lessons/topics/quizzes. This means there are multiple instances of them which you can edit independently of one another.
If you share your course steps, Uncanny Toolkit Pro’s module is the way to go.
If you don’t share course steps, and/or want unique copies of lessons, topics and/or quizzes, WisdmLabs Content Cloner is the better option.
Clone LearnDash Lessons
Cloning lessons is a bit easier. You’ll still want to make sure you go into all cloned lessons, associate them to a new course, and adjust any settings (if needed).
These two plugins will allow you to clone lessons:
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- Uncanny Toolkit Pro for LearnDash
- Yoast Duplicate Post
Clone LearnDash Topics
Cloning topics is basically the same as lessons. These two plugins will allow you to clone topics:
- Uncanny Toolkit Pro for LearnDash
- Yoast Duplicate Post
Clone LearnDash Quizzes
LearnDash quizzes are also a bit challenging to clone because of the large number of settings they possess, as well as all the questions associated with them. The only tool that does this well is the Uncanny Toolkit Pro for LearnDash.
If you would like to import/export quiz & question data, you can try WooNinjas LearnDash Quiz Import/Export. Cost: $119
Clone LearnDash Questions
If all you need to do is clone individual LearnDash questions to use elsewhere in another quiz, or as a starting point to modify slightly, the Uncanny Toolkit Pro module is the best option.
The WisdmLabs Content Cloner does not clone questions, and the Yoast Duplicate Post plugin might not copy all question settings, points, etc. (not tested).
Clone LearnDash Certificates
Very little information is stored with LearnDash certificates, so they are fairly easy to copy. You have two options here:
- Yoast Duplicate Post
- Uncanny Toolkit Pro for LearnDash
Clone LearnDash Groups
When cloning LearnDash groups, it’s important that the course enrollment information is cloned along with the group. Otherwise that almost defeats the purpose of having groups in the first place.
These two plugins allow you to clone LearnDash groups:
- Uncanny Toolkit Pro for LearnDash (copies everything)
- WisdmLabs Content Cloner (copies content & courses but not settings)
The LearnDash Content Cloner is pretty self-explanatory. It just works out of the box (only for courses & groups). But there are a few details you need to be aware of with the other two plugins.
How to Clone Using Uncanny Toolkit Pro for LearnDash
Before you can clone content with Uncanny Toolkit Pro for LearnDash, you’ll need to enable the “Duplicate Pages & Posts” module. You’ll find it in Uncanny Toolkit > Modules.
Click the toggle in the top-right corner to turn it on. There are no settings. Simply navigate to a LearnDash content type, hover over a piece of content, and you’ll see “Clone this ______”.
How to Clone LearnDash Content with Yoast Duplicate Post
The Yoast Duplicate Post plugin works in a very similar way, but there is also a settings page that you need to address before you start cloning. After installing & activating the plugin:
- Navigate to Settings > Duplicate Post
- You can change anything you’d like on the What to copy and Display tabs
- Click on the Permissions tab
- Under “Enable for these post types,” you need to check Lessons, Topics & Certificates
- Feel free to check other post types if you plan to use the plugin to clone other WordPress content. But for LearnDash, these are the three post types you can use it with.
- Click Save Changes at the bottom
“Clone” vs. “New Draft”
With Yoast Duplicate Post, you’ll have two links to choose from when cloning LearnDash content. Here’s the difference:
- Clone will copy it and return you to the same listing page
- New Draft will copy it and open the editing screen so you can start editing immediately
I hope this helped you understand which tools you’ll need to clone content in LearnDash. Let me know if you have any questions in the comments.
ali
very useful article. God bless you…
Jason Drwal
Cloning quizzes is a nightmare. I reuse quizzes all the time and this would be great. I was on the learndash site and I saw Justin say this, export the quiz using the learndash function, then import it back. Viola (sp???)! You now have a quiz that is a clone but is independent from the other quizzes. You can add questions, rename the quiz. It takes about 60 seconds. Literally, export, then stay on the same page and click import. I don’t know why they can’t just build that function in but it works.
Dave Warfel
Good to know. Thanks for sharing, Jason.
Raziel T
Very helpful! The contents of this site are awesome, thanks for sharing. Time to time I come back to see how to improve my Mindful Academy.
John
This is very helpful. Thank you.
If anyone has advice, could you recommend a reliable Learndash course importer add-on?
It would be ideal up be able to import BOTH the course and quiz along with all associations… but I’m having trouble finding a solution.
I’m set to start from creating nearly 2,000 questions and related course content…
Dave Warfel
John,
All of the options available are mentioned in this article. None of them are perfect, but I don’t think what you’re looking for currently exists, thus why you’re having a hard time finding it.
Simon Levenson
HI Dave, Thank you for the info. I think it would be helpful for people to know that Uncanny does NOT clone the course with lessons and other content automatically. You must clone each item separately like you would with a regular post duplicator. You can only clone courses that have shared Step Progressions. This seems to be a common complaint on Uncanny’s website in the comment section. The only way it seems, unless you tell me otherwise, to clone a course with all its parts in order to build a new one is with Wisdm Labs plugin (with the exception of the Quiz issue). Thank you, Simon
Dave Warfel
Hi Simon. Thanks for this.
Upon further reading, I see that the Uncanny Toolkit Pro requires shared course steps to be enabled, and doesn’t actually copy the lessons/topics/quizzes, but is just supposed to associate the existing steps with the course. WisdmLabs Content Cloner is supposed to actually make copies of all the lessons/topics/quizzes in the course.
However, after testing both again today, I found that neither do what they say they’re supposed to. I got errors with the WisdmLabs Content Cloner, and Uncanny Toolkit Pro simply did not put associate any steps in my copied course (in the builder). 🤷♂️
J Fry
Hi ,
I don’t have any association with either of these companies but contrary to Dave’s experience I use Uncanny Pro Cloner and it works for me. I get associations created for all my lessons, topics and quizzes which I have designated in the “Duplicate Pages and Posts” module (I’ve also got the “Share Course Steps” enabled in LD). I’m wodering Dave if it is a conflict with your theme? (I had something like this happen to me and I changed themes and it suddenly started working – try a simple theme like 2020 or 2019 maybe?). Also, there could be a conflict with another plugin
Dave Warfel
Maybe but I think I was using Astra when testing. It’s not a default WordPress theme but it’s one of the most popular themes used with LearnDash, and I doubt they would have code in their theme that would interfere with content cloning 🤷♂️.
Glad it worked for you, though 🙌.
Ben
In my case the Uncanny Toolkit copies everything from the course, but then clears everything what was associated, like chapters and tests and everything. It simply doesn’t copy them, it just associates them with the cloned course … (?!)
Ben
I found out that when you enable shared course steps in the settings on the courses site, with Uncanny you can clone the whole thing with all its contents. give it a try! that solved everything.
Michael
The Content Cloner for LearnDash plugin from WisdmLabs is working like a charm from Version 1.2.9.3. 😉
Dave Warfel
👍 Thanks for sharing your experience.
Ben
Michael, I get warnings in the copied course and it doesn’t copy chapters, tests or whatever what was attached to the original course. Is it working at your page? Am I doing something wrong?!
Daniela Kämmerer
Hi, I’ve been using the Content Cloner earlier this year and it worked perfectly. Now, however, it only copies the course, but not the content…. What am I doing wrong? Thanks for your help!
Warmly,
Daniela
Dave Warfel
You need to disable “shared course steps” in order to make duplicate copies of the course content. If that is enabled, it will not clone all the lessons/topics/quizzes in the course.
Martin
Your articles are so helpful, thank you!
Dave Warfel
You’re welcome 🙂.
Ion
Thank you so much!