Migrating WordPress website can get cumbersome and time consuming depending on the size and intricacies of the site content, such as plugins, images, DB tables and definitely internet speed too.
‘All-in-One WP migration’ plugin makes the WP migration process so much easier. ‘All-in-One WP migration’ plugin is flexible, easy and free tool to migrate sites between different domains, between different hosts, be it – Shared host to shared host, Shared to cloud such as AWS Bitnami or between cloud hosts.
Now, let’s take an example of migrating WP website from ‘stage site’ – http://stage.site1.com to ‘live site’ – http://site1.com
Before we start the migration process, make sure to take complete backup of your ‘stage’ and ‘live’ site.
Complete back-up should include, back-up of
1. WordPress database,
2. WordPress installation files/folders including wp-config.php, core files, theme files,
3. All the plugin files,
4. Images etc..
WP site migration can be accomplished in just 3 steps
Step 1:
- Install ‘All-in-One WP migration’ plugin in both ‘stage’ and ‘live’ site
Step 2: Export site from ‘stage’ site
- Login to stage site and from the Admin dashboard of the ‘stage’ site, mouse over ‘All-in-One WP migration’ on the left navigation column and click on Export.
- Click on ADD and type in ‘Stage’ domain (http://stage.site1.com) and ‘Live’ domain (http://site1.com) URLs. Then click on EXPORT TO – FILE
- You will be asked to DOWNLOAD site1.com. Download and keep it safe.
Step 3: Importing site files to ‘Live’ site
- Now login to the live site (http://site1.com).
- Click on All-in-One WP Migration -> Import
- Click on IMPORT FROM -> FILE, then locate the downloaded file and click on open.
- A warning popup on import process will show up asking you take a backup of the site, as the file imported will overwrite WordPress database, plugins and theme files.
If you have not taken a backup of Live site, please take a backup of the database, WordPress Installation (theme files and plugin files wp-config.php etc…). Then, click on PROCEED.
- You might be prompted to login again. Login to Live site (site1.com) using the login credentials of stage site (stage.site1.com).
- Go to Settings->Permalinks and save it twice.
Please Note: If your internet speed is weak/slow or if the site is way too big with too many images, export process may take way too long or even break. In such cases do not export all the files. While exporting site, you have the option to choose files/folders, select the ones that is not too heavy and upload the rest through FTP.
FTP will involve, downloading files from ‘Stage site’ to your local machine and and then exporting files from local machine to ‘Live site’.
And also one very important thing, make sure ‘wp-config.php’ in ‘Live site’ is from ‘Stage site’.
Now go ahead and migrate your WordPress website!
You may also want to check our tutorial on how to set-up WordPress website in AWS cloud.