First of all, you'll have to "copy" your existing live site to the newly created offline WAMP environment.

You have two options here. You can use a plugin that will do the heavy lifting for you, or you can move your files manually. Obviously, doing it manually is harder and involves some coding, so I won't waste your time with that option.

OK. So let's see the magic ...

First you need to install a free plugin called WP Clone.

Here's the link:

https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-clone-by-wp-academy/

A few words about this great plugin ... There are (too) many cloning plugins out there, but in my opinion WP Clone is the easiest, fastest and most secure way to ...

  • move or copy a WordPress site to another domain or hosting server
  • move your site to/from local server hosting
  • create copies of your site for development or testing purposes
  • backup your site
  • install pre-configured versions of WordPress

Why? Because ...

  • doesn't require FTP access to either the source or destination site
  • it does not backup or restore the WordPress system files (just the user content and database), reducing the upload time and improving the security of your site
  • it fetches the site backup via your host's direct HTTP connection, which saves you from needing to upload large files through your internet connection

With that having said, let's see the magic!



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HilaryJax Premium
Thank you so much for pointing the tutorial out for me. I am wanting to move all my content from a live site to another live site as I am wanting to change domain names. I will then deactivate the original site. (if I can)
Will this whole process work as you are talking about a live site to an offline site? Excuse my ignorance!
Thanks
Hilary
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smartketeer Premium
Yes Hilary ...

The cloning process is the same ...

You can use it to clone an offline site to an online account or vice versa and similarly you can use it to clone sites between two online sites ...
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merlynmac Premium
Are these sites on WA? Do both sites have content? Normally what I do is buy the new domain and then just go to WebSites>SiteManager and click on move next to the old site and pick the new domain to move it to.
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HilaryJax Premium
Hi Merlyn
Yes, they are both on WA. That sounds easy, I can definitely do that. Thank you so much.
Regards
Hilary
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HilaryJax Premium
Hi, Yes they are both on WA, this sounds easy to do, thank you so much
Regards
Hilary
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merlynmac Premium
Any time!
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JKulk1 Premium
Fantastic tutorial but I'm certainly not ready to try this yet. Jim
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smartketeer Premium
Believe Jim is really not rocket science.

Just follow the steps and you'll be able the complete the whole process.

And if you need any help, I'm here :)
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JKulk1 Premium
I understand the idea. I'm just not sure why I'd need it.
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smartketeer Premium
You don't NEED it. But it can be very helpful in many different ways :)
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AHunsinger1 Premium
This is great information. Thank you for the well thought-out presentation.
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smartketeer Premium
Thank you for your time and your feedback C!
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MarionBlack Premium
You'll want to change the Permalink setting to Post Name instead of Custom Structure before saving the changes for permalinks.
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smartketeer Premium
Thanks Marion!

Good point!

I assumed that they already made those configuration steps on their live site. In which case Clone WP will transfer those settings too ...
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MarionBlack Premium
Somehow or other WP Clone adds some weird stuff into the Permalinks setting which has to be changed after the restoration process.
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smartketeer Premium
Thanks for the valuable input Marion!

Do you think that I should update the given page?

Thanks in advance!
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MarionBlack Premium
Yes. I know of at least one person whose website was completely messed up when he didn't realize that his internal links no longer worked because of the change in permalinks.

Go through the process again yourself, Zsolt and you'll see exactly what I mean.
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smartketeer Premium
Thanks Marion.

As far as I remember, I haven't had any issues with the permalinks.

Anyway, I'll update that page right now.

Thanks again!
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