tt_news Migration for TYPO3

Anyone still using tt_news is blocking every TYPO3 upgrade from version 10 onward

tt_news was the standard extension for news, press releases and blog posts in TYPO3 for over a decade. Thousands of websites were built with it, some containing hundreds or thousands of articles. The problem: tt_news was last officially supported for TYPO3 v7. Since TYPO3 v8 (2017), there has been no compatible release. Anyone still using tt_news is stuck on an outdated TYPO3 version and cannot benefit from security updates or new features.

The official replacement is GeorgRinger/news (short: EXT:news), developed as a successor since 2012. news is the most installed TYPO3 extension of all (over 250,000 active installations, as of 2026) and supports TYPO3 v11, v12 and v13. news_ttnewsimport is the migration extension that automates the transition: articles, categories, images, related news and page references are transferred from tt_news to EXT:news.

Typical use cases

TYPO3 upgrade from v7/v8/v9 to v12 or v13. The most common case: a company runs a TYPO3 website on v7 or v9 with 500 to 5,000 news articles in tt_news. The planned upgrade to v12 LTS fails because of tt_news incompatibility. news_ttnewsimport transfers all data into the EXT:news structure so the upgrade can proceed.

Relaunch with existing data. During a website relaunch, the design should be completely new but the existing news articles must be preserved. The articles have built up SEO value over the years (backlinks, indexing, rankings). Starting fresh without migration would destroy that value. news_ttnewsimport preserves the content, EXT:news provides the modern technology, the new design is implemented through Fluid templates.

Multi-site environments with shared news database. Corporations with 5 to 20 TYPO3 instances that manage news centrally and distribute it across all sites. The migration must run in a coordinated fashion: first migrate the central database, then adapt templates on all sites, then replace the old tt_news plugins with EXT:news plugins.

Technical architecture

news_ttnewsimport is a CLI-based extension that runs through the TYPO3 command controller. The migration process works in five steps. First, tt_news categories (tt_news_cat) are converted into sys_category entries. The category hierarchy (parent-child) is preserved. Then the news records themselves are migrated: title, teaser, bodytext, author, date, type (news, internal link, external link), archive date and hidden/deleted status. In the third step, images and media are converted from the old storage structure (uploads/pics/ or fileadmin/) into FAL references. Image captions and alt texts are transferred where available. The fourth step migrates related news (cross-references between articles) as sys_category relations or as direct news relations. In the final step, content elements on news pages are updated: tt_news plugins are replaced with EXT:news plugins, TypoScript settings are adjusted.

The data table changes from tt_news to tx_news_domain_model_news. The field mapping is documented: tt_news.title becomes tx_news.title, tt_news.short becomes tx_news.teaser, tt_news.bodytext becomes tx_news.bodytext, tt_news.datetime becomes tx_news.datetime. Not all fields have a 1:1 counterpart (e.g. tt_news.image as a comma-separated file list vs. EXT:news with FAL references).

Common problems and solutions

Images missing after migration. tt_news stored images as filenames in a text field (e.g. “image1.jpg,image2.jpg”), with files residing in uploads/pics/. EXT:news uses FAL. If the physical files no longer exist in the expected directory (e.g. after a server move), image migration fails. Solution: verify before migration that all referenced images are physically present. Restore missing files from backups or create placeholders.

Category assignments lost. tt_news used its own category tables (tt_news_cat), EXT:news uses sys_category. If the migration does not correctly map category IDs, articles lose their assignments. Solution: news_ttnewsimport creates a mapping (old ID to new ID) and updates all references. This mapping should be exported and archived after migration in case later corrections are needed.

URL structure changes, SEO rankings drop. tt_news articles had URLs like /news/detail/article-title/. EXT:news generates /news/article-title/ by default. Solution: set up 301 redirects from old to new URLs. With 1,000 articles, this is not feasible manually. Gosign generates the redirect map automatically from the old and new URL structures and imports it as RealURL/RouteEnhancer configuration or as .htaccess rules.

Migration and version compatibility

news_ttnewsimport supports migration to EXT:news on TYPO3 v11 and v12. The recommended procedure: first upgrade TYPO3 to v11 (if coming from v7/v8/v9, in stages), then run news_ttnewsimport, then upgrade to v12 or v13. Migrating on a v7 instance is not recommended because EXT:news cannot use the current version there.

For very large datasets (10,000+ articles), Gosign recommends performing the migration on a staging system and reviewing the result before switching production. The migration itself takes between 30 minutes (500 articles) and 4 hours (10,000 articles with images) depending on data volume. Template adaptation (Fluid templates for the new EXT:news output) comes as a separate effort and typically takes 2 to 5 days.

An often underestimated aspect of tt_news migration is search engine communication. Google has indexed and ranked the old URLs. If after migration 500 URLs return 404, the website loses ranking positions. Gosign therefore sets up redirect monitoring after every migration: one week after go-live, Google Search Console data is checked for 404 errors, missing redirects are added and indexing of new URLs is accelerated via IndexNow or manual fetch requests.

For companies that want to use the tt_news migration as an opportunity for a content audit, Gosign offers a combined approach: during the technical migration, all articles are reviewed for freshness, SEO quality and relevance. Outdated articles are redirected to the homepage or a thematic overview page instead of being migrated. This reduces the dataset, improves content quality and saves migration effort for articles that no longer generate traffic.