Ok, I did use wordpress importer/exporter, but it also didn’t work, same issue.
After you mentioned that Search & Filter data is just saved as a custom post types, I deactivated the Custom Post Type UI plugin I was using, and re-imported the exported xml file via wordpress importer/exporter, this time it imported fine, all forms worked and kept their settings, and changes could be saved. I then reactivated Custom Post Type UI, who’s custom taxonomies I was using in the form anyway, all custom posts and taxonomies showed up again and everything worked fine.
I think this was the issue, there appears to be some conflict between Custom Post Type UI and importing Search & Filter data, and I think if I’d deactivated CPT UI while importing the sql file in the db, then it would still have worked.
Topic finally resolved!! 🙂 Hopefully helps someone else in the future.
Thanks for your help Roos (and Scott).
Cheers,
Rupert