Running the import wizard a second time is safe. HelpBento records every article it has ever imported, so a repeat run never creates duplicates by accident, and the Sync updates mode pulls changes from your source into the articles you already have. All of it lives under Settings > Migrations.
How re-imports avoid duplicates
Each successful import is recorded against the article's id at the source, per provider. When you click Start Import again for the same source, the Preview step shows previously imported articles greyed out with an Imported (date) badge, and a notice at the top counts how many were skipped. Greyed-out rows cannot be selected, so a repeat run only picks up what is new.
Two situations where this matters:
- An import stopped partway. Long imports stop cleanly before the server time limit and show as Interrupted in the history. The articles already imported are kept. Run the wizard again for the same source and it skips them and imports only the rest.
- You want a second copy of one article. Click Re-import on the greyed-out row. The row becomes selectable and the article is imported again as a new, separate article; the earlier copy is left as it is.
Sync updates mode
Once you have imported from a provider at least once, its card on Settings > Migrations gains a Sync updates button next to Start Import. Sync runs the same Connect and Select steps, then replaces the preview with a Review changes step that compares the source against your previous imports:
| Card | What it means | What sync does |
|---|---|---|
| New at source | Articles that have never been imported | Imports them as new articles, placed in the category where their already-imported neighbours live (or a new category named after the source category if none exist) |
| Changed | Imported before, and edited at the source since the last sync | Updates the existing HelpBento article in place |
| Missing at source | Imported before, but the source no longer returns them | Nothing. They stay in HelpBento; archive or delete them yourself if they should go |
| Up to date | Imported before and not edited since | Nothing |
Change detection uses the source's own last-modified timestamp, so nothing is downloaded until you confirm. The button reads Sync N articles, then Start Sync on the final step. When everything is current, the review step says so and there is nothing to run.
What "updated in place" keeps
A changed article receives the new title and body from the source, with images re-hosted in HelpBento. Everything else about the article stays as you had it:
- The URL slug is left unchanged, even if the title changed at the source, so published links keep working.
- Category placement stays wherever you put the article in HelpBento, even if it moved at the source.
- Publish status is respected. A published article gets the new content live immediately. A draft or archived article receives a new draft version and stays unpublished. Sync never publishes or unpublishes anything.
- Stats, tags, and ordering are untouched.
- An article you deleted in HelpBento is skipped, not recreated.
Migration history
Settings > Migrations lists every run under Import History, newest first. Each row shows the provider, a Sync badge for sync runs, the date, and counts: articles imported (or, for a sync, updated and new), missing at source, and failed.
Click a row to open the Import Details drawer:
- Status: Completed, Failed, Interrupted, In Progress, or Cancelled.
- Totals for imported, failed, categories created, and images uploaded.
- The source Collection and when the run Started.
- The full Articles list. Failed articles show the reason next to the title; successful ones link straight to the article in the editor.