WP Migrate DB – WordPress Migration Made Easy

Do I have to set up my WordPress migration manually each time?

No! WP Migrate DB includes what are called “Migration profiles.” These profiles allow you to save your WordPress migration settings to make the process as fast as possible.

Is WP Migrate DB compatible with WordPress multisite?

The free version of WP Migrate DB is compatible with WordPress Multisite, however, if you upgrade to Pro, the power is turned up to 11. Pro includes full support for importing a single site into a Multisite network, and you can also export a subsite into a single site.

I have a ton of spam comments on my site, can I exclude those from the migration?

You sure can! WP Migrate DB allows you to exclude spam comments from any WordPress migration in a click.

What if a plugin corrupts my WordPress migration?

Don’t worry! Since WP Migrate DB 1.0 and above, all plugins are put into compatibility mode, which essentially prevents them from loading for migration requests only.

Plugins can be whitelisted to run while the migration is running from a straightforward to use admin interface.

Can I migrate my entire WordPress website with this?

Yes! Just purchase the Developer license or better, and you’ll be able to push and pull your media, plugins, and themes in addition to your database in a couple of clicks.

Question: What format is my WordPress database exported in?

When you run the migration, your WordPress database is export in SQL, you then save the file to your desktop and can import that via another database tool such as phpMyAdmin.

I’ve always been told exporting my WordPress database is difficult, what makes this different?

WP Migrate DB comes with everything you need and nothing you don’t. With a friendly, easy-to-use user interface, being able to export WordPress database files reliably has never been easier.

Can I use WP Migrate DB to move to new web hosting?

Yup! You can easily export your database and import your database into your new web hosting account using a tool like phpMyAdmin or similar. Want even more power? Upgrade to Pro and simply push or pull all your media and theme/plugin files as well.

What exactly does push/pull databases mean?

If you’re using a staging website and have a live website hosted somewhere else (like a good developer who follows best practices) then you’ll make updates locally and then make those changes live.

However, your database will be out of sync between the two, at some point you’ll be missing important data!

WP Migrate DB Pro makes this easy. You can pull a database from live to staging, make your changes, and then push back to the live site with a click. Remember, though, this functionality is only available in WP Migrate DB Pro.

What about serialized data? Will my data remain intact?

WP Migrate DB fully supports the finding and replacement of serialized data. Simply input the data you want to find, and the data you want to replace it with and let WP Migrate DB handle the rest.

Will you migrate my WordPress website for me?

We don’t offer WordPress migration services at this time, but you might want to give WP Migrate DB Pro a try. It’s a WordPress migration plugin with everything you need to migrate to a new host quickly and easily. And if you find it too difficult, we have a 100% No-Risk 60-Day Money Back Guarantee so you can easily get a refund.

Can I use the command line (WP-CLI)?

Yes, WP Migrate DB includes an export and find-replace command. With the WP Migrate DB Pro Developer license or better you get the CLI addon which includes an additional six commands: push, pull, profiles, profile, setting, and import. Check out our documentation for more information on our WP-CLI commands.

Can I migrate to a new domain?

WP Migrate DB is perfect for migrating to a new domain! You can use the built-in find and replace functionality to find your old site URL (domain name) in your database content and replace it with your new one.

What are the steps to migrate my site with WP Migrate DB?

Assuming you’re using the free version, simply install the plugin. Fill in the URL(s) you’d like found and what to replace them with, and export your WordPress database, which will download an SQL file. Now access your MySQL (or MariaDB!) database using your preferred tool (like phpMyAdmin or SequelPro), import the SQL file, and you’re good to go.

Why is WP Migrate DB better than Updraft, Duplicator, and Search Replace DB?

Ok, so maybe we’re biased, but if you’ve used other tools, you’ll know they can be complex to set up, and challenging to use. Not to mention, they may not work every time.

Let’s look at a popular find and replace script for serialized data called Search Replace DB, with this you have to upload the script, run it manually and it doesn’t have a backup option or email support.

A quick comparison with Updraft Plus—while Updraft Plus provides a lot of functionality, it’s primarily a backup plugin with a premium option for migrating your website. Compare that to WP Migrate DB — the site migration tool used and recommended by professional WordPress developers.

The Themes and Plugins add-on for WP Migrate DB Pro from @dliciousbrains is pure genius. So many use cases I didn’t think of when they released it. Mainly: 1) Staging sites 2) Plugin support Saves me time every week. – Clifton Griffin, Development Lead at Objectiv

Finally, Duplicator is a migration plugin that does things very differently from WP Migrate DB. Duplicator creates a zip file of your database and files that must be manually transferred (via FTP/SFTP) to your site’s new location. This package must then be unzipped and an installer script run. These operations are all much more taxing on server resources than what WP Migrate DB does and lot less smooth than WP Migrate DB Pro.

Can I clone WordPress, or duplicate WordPress using WP Migrate DB?

You can! While cloning a WordPress site can be difficult, WP Migrate DB makes it a breeze. The same goes if you want to duplicate WordPress, which is a different way of saying the same thing. Here’s a quick step by step guide.

Step 1: Install the plugin on the WordPress install you want to clone WordPress to.
Step 2: Fill in the find and replace fields within WP Migrate DB.
Step 3: Export the database.
Step 4: Import the database into your new site.

And it’s as simple as that, your data has been cloned onto the new site, ready to go. Pssst¦ If you have WP Migrate DB Pro, it’s even easier to clone your entire website, including all your media, themes, and plugins.

Is FTP a thing of the past?

If you use WP Migrate DB Pro, no longer do you need to use those old clunky FTP clients. Instead, you can push and pull your plugin, theme, and media files in a click. It couldn’t be simpler.

Will this work with my hosting provider?

WP Migrate DB works perfectly with all web hosting providers and even your localhost install! It’s never been easier to migrate your website to a new server, update your domain, or make changes between local and staging.

How about backing up my database?

WP Migrate DB Pro performs a database backup before exporting your SQL. However, if you’re using WP Migrate DB free, we’d recommend using a plugin or making backups through your web hosting control panel before migrating your site.

What support is provided?

Limited free support is provided, and we offer dedicated priority email support for our WP Migrate DB Pro users.

Where can I find out about the pricing of WP Migrate DB Pro?

Find out all relevant pricing information over on our official site.

WP Migrate DB 1.0.16 – 2020-09-14

• Find & Replace migrations do not replace data that is JSON encoded
• The Filesystem::chmod() method does not function correctly and silently logs an error
• Running a migration without find and replace values throws a PHP warning

WP Migrate DB 1.0.15 – 2020-07-30

• Bug fix: Check boxes are not saved correctly in plugin settings

WP Migrate DB 1.0.14 – 2020-07-28

• Bug fix: Invalid $_POST values are returned in plain text which is a cross site scripting (XSS) risk

WP Migrate DB 1.0.13 – 2020-03-17

• Bug fix: Usage of get_magic_quotes_gpc() triggers a warning on PHP 7.4+
• Bug fix: WordPress home and site_url values are set incorrectly on multisite installs with the ‘ms_files_rewriting’ option set
• Bug fix: PHP warning during JSON find & replace if search or replace value is empty

WP Migrate DB 1.0.12 – 2020-02-26

• Bug fix: Sanitize $_GET parameter when triggering download for export
• Bug fix: Sanitize $_GET parameter when downloading backup file
• Bug fix: Call to undefined end_ajax() method
• Bug fix: Use of PHP compact() function not working with PHP 7.3+
• Bug fix: Search & replace did not work with JSON encoded content in the wp_posts table

WP Migrate DB 1.0.11 – 2019-04-30

• Bug fix: WP_Filesystem initialized on all wp-admin pages

WP Migrate DB 1.0.10 – 2019-02-12

• Improvement: Compatibility with MySQL 8
• Improvement: UI Updates

WP Migrate DB 1.0.9 – 2019-01-29

• Bug fix: Bit fields with a value of NULL are handled incorrectly
• Improvement: Major refactor to remove third-party dependency injection container

WP Migrate DB 1.0.8 – 2018-11-29

• Bug fix: WordPress filesystem class not correctly loaded and causes 500 error
• Improvement: Remove deprecated PHP code making PHP 7+ compatibility checks pass

WP Migrate DB 1.0.7 – 2018-11-21

• Bug fix: WP Migrate DB Anonymization plugin no longer functions
• Bug fix: 500 errors occur when another plugin is installed that includes Composer
• Improvement: Add Theme & Plugin Files Addon to addons list
• Improvement: Remove un-needed template files

WP Migrate DB 1.0.6 – 2018-11-19

• New: Increased PHP version requirement from PHP 5.2+ to PHP 5.4+
• Improvement: Major reorganization of the PHP code into better classes and a better folder structure

WP Migrate DB 1.0.5 – 2018-11-09

• New: Updated YouTube video in migration progress modal
• Bug fix: Duplicate JavaScript causes console error

WP Migrate DB 1.0.4 – 2018-09-13

• Bug fix: Overall progress bar spins when font-awesome loaded

WP Migrate DB 1.0.3 – 2018-09-10

• Bug fix: Usage of static keyword errors in PHP 5.2.4

WP Migrate DB 1.0.2 – 2017-10-25

• Bug fix: Some plugins causing “Invalid nonce” errors when using compatibility mode
• Bug fix: Error for invalid permissions for Exports not displaying

WP Migrate DB 1.0.1 – 2017-09-14

• Bug Fix: Parse error on PHP 5.2
• Bug Fix: Row not set for wpmdb_replace_custom_data filter

WP Migrate DB 1.0 – 2017-08-11

• New: Plugins and themes are disabled by default for HTTP requests made by WP Migrate DB Pro for better performance and compatibility
• Improvement: Page is reloaded automatically after migrations that alter the wp_options, wp_users, and wp_usermeta tables
• Improvement: Additional constants added to the diagnostic log for better debugging by our support team
• Improvement: Compatibility mode directory permission errors are now dismissable and fewer notices are displayed
• Bug Fix: Find & Replace not operating on wp_site and wp_blogs tables on multisite

WP Migrate DB 0.9.2 – 2016-12-16

• Bug Fix: Fixing 500 error for exports due to missing dependency on the WPMDB_Filesystem class

WP Migrate DB 0.9.1 – 2016-12-15

• Bug Fix: Tables occasionally shown as completed twice, throwing off migration progress
• Bug Fix: Backups run before find/replace operations sometimes have incorrect encoding

WP Migrate DB 0.9 – 2016-10-20

• New: In-place Find & Replace functionality added – a find and replace can now be run on a site’s own database
• New: CLI find-replace subcommand added
• Improvement: Removed font-family declarations from stylesheets
• Improvement: Truncate WP Migrate DB Pro diagnostic log to always be < 1MB, to help with memory exhaustion errors
• Improvement: Added help tooltips for the default find and replace fields
• Improvement: Added multisite specific constants to the diagnostic log
• Improvement: “Clear Error Log” button only removes error messages and updates any changed diagnostic values
• Improvement: Total stage progress now remains visible when scrolling migration item progress
• Improvement: Show/Hide Tables setting does not persist between sessions.
• Improvement: Progress bar animations now reflect paused migration state
• Improvement: JS files now include a version number to better avoid cache issues

WP Migrate DB 0.8 – 2016-04-12

• New: Migration progress UI
• New: Individual table migration progress
• New: Migration progress shown in title bar
• New: Settings tab UI
• Improvement: Adding a new find/replace row now automatically adds focus to the new “find” input
• Improvement: Compatibility with WordPress 4.5

WP Migrate DB 0.7.2 – 2015-12-03

• Improvement: “Migrate” button renamed to “Export”
• Improvement: Uses WP_Filesystem instead of direct PHP filesystem functionality where possible
• Improvement: Remove Find & Replace row icon is now a little dimmer to reduce UI clutter
• Improvement: Compatibility with WordPress 4.4

WP Migrate DB 0.7.1 – 2015-07-09

• Improvement: Added more diagnostic info to facilitate debugging
• Improvement: Global JS variables moved to single global object to avoid conflicts
• Bug Fix: WP Migrate DB and Pro can be activated at the same time when activating plugins in bulk or via WP-CLI
• Bug Fix: BINARY data not exported properly
• Bug Fix: BIT data not exported properly
• Bug Fix: When post_max_size is set to 0 (unlimited), wpmdb_bottleneck is broken
• Bug Fix: Saved Profiles link is broken in certain situations

WP Migrate DB 0.7 – 2015-06-12

• New: WP-CLI export subcommand
• New: Quick copy find textbox value to replace textbox by clicking arrow icon in between (hat tip Jonathan Perlman)
• New: Added filters to hook into find & replace routine and deal with encoded data (example)
• Improvement: Greatly reduced data passed through each HTTP request for better security and reliability
• Improvement: Massive overhaul of input sanitization for better security
• Improvement: Add _mig_ prefix to wpmdb_alter_statements table
• Improvement: Cleanup wpmdb_alter_statements tables from failed migrations
• Improvement: Show dimmed remove icons in find & replace rows to indicate they can be removed
• Improvement: Dim remove icons next to saved profiles
• Improvement: Better error message when empty response received from remote server
• Improvement: Added diagnostic info to facilitate debugging and decrease time to resolution for support requests
• Improvement: Warning notice when WP_HTTP_BLOCK_EXTERNAL constant is set to true
• Improvement: Leave it to WordPress core to convert tables to utf8mb4
• Improvement: Workaround to fix issues with Siteground’s staging environments
• Bug fix: Connection URL with space(s) in beginning failing
• Bug fix: Cancelling a gzipped Export does not remove file
• Bug fix: Unusual table names causing regular expressions to fail
• Bug fix: Preserving options not working when default subsite is not 1
• Bug fix: NAN% shown at beginning of a migration
• Bug fix: Migration progress bar is overflowing the scale, passing 100%
• Bug fix: Custom post type links broken after migration with Compatibility Mode enabled
• Bug fix: Saving a new profile does not change the URL to that saved profile URL

WP Migrate DB 0.6.1 – 2014-10-29

• New: breadcrumb-style UI for saved profiles
• New: Brazilian Portugese translation
• Security: Added .htaccess to backup folder to help prevent direct downloads
• Security: False values not included in signature
• Improvement: Compatibility with TGM Plugin Activation
• Improvement: Fixed hundreds of PHP Code Sniffer warnings
• Improvement: Switch to update_site_option() and get_site_option()
• Improvement: Cleaner and more instructive error message on JSON decoding failure
• Improvement: New hooks to massage data before and after find & replace
• Improvement: Common server security rules better accommodated
• Improvement: Better compatibility with SSL on WP Engine
• Improvement: Minify all the Javascripts
• Improvement: Use PHP’s DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR instead of our own constant
• Improvement: Updated tons of translation strings to be translator-friendly
• Improvement: Find & replace field error messages could suggest removing the fields
• Improvement: Download button for Diagnostic Info & Error Log
• Bug fix: 404 errors after successful migrations due to caching
• Bug fix: Multisite exports broken on PHP < 5.4.7
• Bug fix: Using relative paths for file includes
• Bug fix: Typing new profile name does not select “Create new profile” option
• Bug fix: Find & replace field errors stick around even after removing fields
• Bug fix: wpmdb_error_log option is auto loading
• Bug fix: Inconsistent stripping of slashes
• Bug fix: Spinner is inconsistent with WP 3.8+ spinner
• Bug fix: Apostrophe in path not being handled
• Bug fix: Inappropriate use of htmlentities()
• Bug fix: The table tooltip still shows during the media files migration
• Bug fix: Import/Export issues between MySQL 5.1 and 5.5+
• Bug fix: Notice error on Updates dashboard page
• Bug fix: Signature verification error when local and remote plugins are different versions
• Bug fix: Find & replace handle icon is rendering poorly
• Bug fix: PHP Notice: Undefined variable: safe_mode
• Bug fix: Fatal error: Cannot use object of type WP_Error as array in verify_download()

WP Migrate DB 0.6 – 2014-08-19

• New: Updated the migration UI to include a detailed progress bar, time elapsed, pause and cancel buttons and more!
• New: Option to exclude transients (temporary cached data)
• New: Migration profiles
• New: Setting to configure the maximum request size (how much data is exported in a given HTTP request)
• Improvement: Unlimited find & replace fields with drag & drop reordering

WP Migrate DB 0.5 – 2013-07-26

• Language support! Thanks to an awesome pull request from Rafael Funchal.
• New Language: Brazilian Portugese
• Added filter for the filename of the exported file
• Bug fix: Spam commentmeta included when “Do not export spam comments” checked
• Bug fix: Fatal error method error does not exist
• Bug fix: Table names with dashes not exporting
• Bug fix: Find & replace is case-sensitive but shouldn’t

WP Migrate DB 0.4.4 – 2013-05-19

• Pro version has arrived! Added some info to the sidebar.
• Updated required version to WordPress 3.0+
• Bug fix: Does not handle serialized objects
• Bug fix: Admin menu disappears when DISALLOW_FILE_MODS is true
• Bug fix: Duplicate records on export
• Bug fix: Updated spinner image for HiDPI displays

WP Migrate DB 0.4.3 – 2012-12-18

• Fixed deprecated error notices when debug mode is on
• Bug fix: Exports views as tables
• Compatibility tested with WordPress 3.5

WP Migrate DB 0.4.2 – 2012-09-13

• Moved screenshots to /assets folder and updated them to support retina
• Added sidebar including author profile and survey to gauge interest for a pro version

WP Migrate DB 0.4.1 – 2012-08-15

• Removed WP App Store installer – not allowed in WP.org repo

WP Migrate DB 0.4 – 2012-08-07

• New: More than 4x faster than version 0.3 due to find & replace improvements
• New: Option to turn off replacing GUIDs
• New: Option to exclude spam comments and post revisions from the export
• New: Option to save file with gzip compression
• New: Added date and time to file names
• New: Display path to SQL file on the server
• New: WP App Store installer integration
• Bug fix: Notices and warnings displayed when WP_DEBUG is on

WP Migrate DB 0.3 – 2011-12-16

• Bug fix: Null formatting error
• Bug fix: Deprecated capability
• Bug fix: Serialized string lengths incorrect when string contains double quotes

WP Migrate DB 0.2.2 – 2011-09-23

• Bug fix: Breaks Export

WP Migrate DB 0.2.1 – 2009-12-13

• Moved to WordPress.org hosting

WP Migrate DB 0.2 – 2009-04-03

• Moved menu link from “Settings” to “Tools”
• The random string of characters no longer appears in the filename on save.

WP Migrate DB 0.1 – 2009-03-20

• First release

1. 

   Main screen

2. 

   Settings tab

3. 

   Saving the exported database