A very hacky and quick way to transfer a Custom Taxonomy to Custom Post Type and transfer associated metadata to Custom Meta Fields. Note: You can use this if it fits your needs, but it is custom to my set up. Use in a testing environment. It's a plugin with no interface, runs on activation and depending on the amount of data, may hit PHP timeou…

Convert Custom Taxonomy to Custom Post Type

<?php
/* 
Plugin Name: Convert Custom Taxonomy to Custom Post Type 
Plugin URI: N/A
Description: A plugin to convert a Custom Taxonomy to a Custom Post Type and transfer associated metadata.
Version: 0.1 
Author: Strap1
Author URI: http:/www.hiphopinenglish.com

/** Convert Taxonomy '%name%' to CPT '%name%' **/

function make_posts_from_taxonomy($taxonomy) {
if(did_action('init') === 1) { //Ensure we only run function once
// Get all Taxonomy
$args = array(
	'parent' => 0, //In my case I only wanted top level terms returned
	'hide_empty' => false,
	);
	
$taxonomy = 'your_taxonomy'; //Define Custom Taxonomy (source)
$post_type = 'your_CPT'; // Define Custom Post Type (target)

$terms = get_terms( $taxonomy, $args);

foreach ($terms as $term) {
	set_time_limit(20); //Attempt to prevent timeouts
	$t_id = $term->term_id;
	$term_meta = get_option( "taxonomy_$t_id" );
	$name = $term->name; //Title
	$slug = $term->slug; //Slug
	$description = $term->description; //Description
	
	//Above finds all the data from Custom Taxonomy and associated metadata.
	//We make a new post for each item, using same details from Taxonomy
	if( null == get_page_by_title( $name ) ) { // If that post doesn't exist of course.
		$new_post = array(
			
			'post_title' => $name,
			'post_content' => $description, //Use Taxonomy description for Post Content
			'post_name' => $slug,
			'post_status' => 'publish',
			'post_type' => $post_type,
			
	);
	//Insert post
	$post_id = wp_insert_post( $new_post );
	
	//Insert meta where it exists. Note that my meta is stored like so: http://pippinsplugins.com/adding-custom-meta-fields-to-taxonomies/
	if (!empty($term_meta['buy_download_meta'])) : update_post_meta ($post_id, '_cmb_buy', $term_meta['buy_download_meta']); endif;
	if (!empty($term_meta['custom_term_meta'])) : update_post_meta ($post_id, '_cmb_discogs', $term_meta['custom_term_meta']); endif;
	if (!empty($term_meta['itunes_meta'])) : update_post_meta ($post_id, '_cmb_itunes', $term_meta['itunes_meta']); endif;
	if (!empty($term_meta['artist_showcase_meta'])) : update_post_meta ($post_id, '_cmb_showcase', $term_meta['artist_showcase_meta']); endif;

		} else { // Do sweet F.A.
	}

	
	} //End foreach

} //End function

} //Endif did_action
register_activation_hook( __FILE__, 'make_posts_from_taxonomy' ); //Run on plugin activation
?>

Nice one mate. This did exactly what I needed.

Awesome! Thank you!

Thanks for this. Still helpful several years on. 💯

Thanks for this. Saved me a ton of time getting an old WP site refactored.

Many thanks. This saved me a lot of time.

Many thanks. This saved me a lot of time.

Glad to hear it.
Forgot all about this. Glad to hear folks are still finding this useful after a long time.

Possible I miss something here, but the line $term_meta = get_option( "taxonomy_$t_id" ); will not work (at least it did not when I tested it), and neither will the subsequent lines to insert meta fields. Term meta is not an option, you need to query them piece by piece via get_term_meta( $term_id, $key, true ) or alternatively a custom SQL query to get all at once as array.

Possible I miss something here, but the line $term_meta = get_option( "taxonomy_$t_id" ); will not work (at least it did not when I tested it), and neither will the subsequent lines to insert meta fields. Term meta is not an option, you need to query them piece by piece via get_term_meta( $term_id, $key, true ) or alternatively a custom SQL query to get all at once as array.

You're almost definitely right. I wrote this in 2013 (and it was a little hacky even at the time)! If you managed to fix what wasn't working for you, please share it here as it might help others.