Have you ever wanted to migrate a WordPress site over to another host? Confused about the entire process of moving WordPress sites? True, there are number of paid plugins on the market that can do this for you. But, if you a run a personal blog, small local site, or even a big corporate site there is a plugin that can help you immensely with moving WordPress sites from host to host. Let me introduce to you WP Clone by WP Academy. This is a plugin that was developed by Marc Beneteau that has saved me lots and lots of time over they years. In this article, I am going to provide a full walkthrough of how you use this plugin to move your WordPress data from one server to another server.
First, you need to make sure you have the right plugin. You can do a search for “WP Clone” in your dashboard or you can find the plugin directly (WP Clone Plugin). Then once you find the plugin, you’re going to want to install it and then activate it. I have about 25 WordPress plugins installed on tbwhs.com and I haven’t seen any plugin conflicts with this plugin. If you have noticed any conflicts I would invite you to leave a comment down below so that we all know about it.
For you visual learners I have found an awesome video which walks you through the entire process:
There are only a couple of options in the WP Clone plugin that you need in order to use it. It’s pretty straight and forward. Once you have the plugin installed your just going to click on “WP Clone from your WordPress dashboard.
Click on “create backup.” The plugin will take a couple minutes to backup your MySQL database, WordPress settings, etc.
Then once you have created your backup you will see a directory file where your backup is at. The beauty of this is you can login to another WordPress backup and install the WP Clone plugin and cut and paste the URL you want to restore from. This will take all of your data and put it on your new WordPress installation.
Then you’re good to go. Just make sure that everything looks the way it did whenever you cloned the site. A common problem is the your links might not work properly. To fix this problem you’re just going to want to go into “Settings” and then “Permalinks” and click update settings. You should be good to go.
Have you used the WP Clone plugin on any of your websites? I would love to hear of any problems or issues you might have with the plugin. Just as a word of caution; WP Clone is not a backup plugin. It mostly used to migrate all your data from one host to another. You can kind of use it as a backup, but there are many other better plugins for this.
I hope you found this WordPress plugin useful. I really do like it and use it all the time. However, if you want a paid plugin you are welcome to read my article on Snapshot for WordPress; it is always a great plugin for transferring your data. If you could leave your comments down below I will clarify any bugs that you might have noticed.
Great write up. I have been thinking about moving my WP site but have yet to do it. I was a bit stymied to be honest on even where to start. I think I might just have to check out WP clone.
Thanks again,
Marc
Great article on WP clone WordPress plugin. Informative and helpful. I’m really new to this stuff but do you think that WordPress is the best platform for websites or are there better options available out there?
Hey Jes,
Well, to answer your question I think WordPress is the best CMS for ease of use. Basically, it’s what I am familiar with. But, regarding dynamics, I believe Joomla is just as good if not better. However, the learning curve with Joomla is quite a bit more challenging to master. Actually, in the upcoming years, I do plan to learn it more, though.
Great article and explanation of a very good tool – WP Clone. I too have used it and had no problems at all.
It really is an excellent plugin. A must have. And it free!