How long does the whole migration actually take?

An evening for boards under 500 cards, a half-day for 500-2000. The 10 minutes deciding the new phase shape (step 2) are the bottleneck; the actual import runs in minutes. Most of the wall-clock time is the team double-checking that what they cared about made it across.

Will I lose comment / attachment history?

No - comments and attachments come over from the Trello JSON export. Attachment files are pulled across as references; they live on {PRODUCT}'s storage afterwards. Member assignments port if the same email exists on the new board.

What about Trello Power-Ups we relied on?

Most teams find that the Power-Ups they used were patches for missing structure (custom fields for phase, deadline calculators, time tracking). {PRODUCT} ships phases + durations + owners natively, so 70% of typical Power-Up use cases disappear. The remaining 30% (third-party integrations, exotic custom fields) need a real assessment - reach out from /support if you need help mapping a specific Power-Up.

Can I migrate multiple Trello boards at once?

Yes, one at a time. Each Trello export is a separate JSON file; each becomes its own {PRODUCT} board. We don't recommend merging two Trello boards into one {PRODUCT} board - the phases of two distinct production lines mix into noise. Two production lines = two boards.

What if the migration imports something wrong?

Use the preview to catch mapping errors before commit - that's the safe checkpoint. After commit, the recovery path is to delete the affected cards in {PRODUCT} (we soft-delete by default so it's reversible from the trash) and re-import the corrected JSON subset. The original Trello board stays read-only for a week per step 5, so the source of truth is still there if you need it.

Production Board

Guides

Migrating from Trello to Production Board: a clean walk-through

Most Trello boards leave for the same reason: production work outgrew the column-and-card shape. The migration takes an evening, not a weekend.

Migration

Trello

Setup

Guide

Finn GlasCo-Founder + Engineering

·February 8, 2026·

3 min read

Step by step

Export your Trello board as JSON

In Trello: board menu → "More" → "Print and Export" → "Export as JSON". Save the file locally - it's the source of truth for the next step. Trello's JSON export is comprehensive (cards, lists, members, attachments, checklists, custom fields) so nothing structural is lost.

Decide the new phase shape

Don't 1:1 map your Trello columns to {PRODUCT} phases. The columns reflect what Trello allowed; the phases should reflect your actual production cycle. Take ten minutes to write the real stages on paper, then pick the columns that map and the columns that get archived. This is the single highest-leverage step in the migration.

Trello list "To Do" usually maps to your backlog phase, not phase 1.

Trello list "Done" doesn't need to migrate - archive it.

Power-up custom fields rarely survive the move; treat them as one-time loss unless they're load-bearing.

Import the cards

Open {PRODUCT}, create the new board with the phases from step 2, and use the import dialog (Account settings → Import). The dialog parses the Trello JSON, shows you a preview of the first 50 rows so you can sanity-check the column mapping, and commits when you're happy. For very large boards (1000+ cards), import a small subset first to validate the mapping.

Re-create what didn't transfer

What migrates: card titles, descriptions, due dates, members, comments, attachments. What usually doesn't: power-up custom fields, board automations, saved filters, board background images. The non-transfers are usually the patches you piled on Trello to fake structure - {PRODUCT} has the structure native, so most of them are no longer needed.

Run both side-by-side for a week, then cancel Trello

Don't burn the bridge on day one. Keep the Trello board read-only for a week so anyone in the team can sanity-check what migrated. Once the week ends and nobody has flagged a missing card, cancel Trello from their side. {PRODUCT}'s export is one click in account settings if you ever need to leave us.

Why people leave Trello

Three reasons recur. Size: a Trello board past about 200 active cards starts feeling slow and cards get lost in long columns. Structure: power-ups patch in checklists, custom fields, and dependencies, but the patches accumulate as drift. Shape: production work has phases with durations and owners-per-phase that Trello doesn't model natively. None of these are Trello bugs - it's just outside the shape Trello was designed for.

FAQ

Frequently asked

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Written by

Finn Glas

Co-Founder + Engineering

Finn is one of the Co-Founders. He owns the engineering side, the infrastructure, and most of the late-night fixes that ship before anyone notices.

finn.glas at aicuflow dot comLinkedIn Website