A quirk on the search/replace – Site URL

  • Hi!
    This is a very nice plugin! It’s my first time using it. I did run into something odd and just wanted to report it in case it helps you.

    I was simply moving a site from a folder to the root of the site. Typically test moving to “production”. First I did a database backup (of course).

    Following the procedure in the FAQ, I did define the Home and Site URL’s in the config file for the root URL. Then I moved the site files down to the root. I logged into admin fine, and things looked great. I ran Better Search, it seemed fine (I skipped GUID’s). I re-saved the Permalinks to get a fresh HTACCESS in there. All solid.

    Then I decided to remove the Home and Site URL’s from the config. Oops. ?? Links were all busted, image paths wacked out, etc. Cleared my browser cache. Tried logging in again, and could not.

    So I restored the config file commands and got into admin OK.

    Then I examined the database, and found that one URL had been missed – Site URL. That’s a biggie. ?? In fact, now the the config file was in effect, I could re-run Better Search Replace. Guess which single URL showed up this time? Yup, Site URL.

    So now all is well, and I was able to safely remove the URL’s from the config file.

    Have you ever run into this before?

    Thanks! Dave

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)
  • Anonymous User 14379775

    (@anonymized-14379775)

    Hi, Dave!
    Yeah, I can confirm that you said!
    One little but important cell remains untouched:
    wp_options->siteurl

    Thread Starter flamenco

    (@flamenco)

    Thanks, Friend,
    I was wondering if anyone else saw this. ?? btw, I just used this at another site, and it left both Site Address AND WordPress Address unchanged.

    So although that’s very findable compared to some stuff, it is a little disconcerting. If someone were not technical, or had no access to view/edit the database, they may have totally freaked out!

    Of course running any massive update app in place like that is pretty hairy, and maybe that’s a safety valve so the whole site admin doesn’t become inaccessible. I was looking to do that anyway to make the site ready before a DNS change. Maybe in that case I should keep the old settings in wp-config to be able to get back in and check things more easily, which they do recommend for some cases.

    I may also experiment with Mat Lipe’s Go Live Update plugin and see how that one compares.

    Dave

    Anonymous User 14379775

    (@anonymized-14379775)

    It was working fine, maybe after 4.7.1 some problem occurred, I can’t remember the exact moment.
    While

    define('WP_HOME','https://...');
define('WP_SITEURL','https://...');

    is in place it seems like all works fine, before you try to delete them)

    Plugin Contributor Matt Shaw

    (@mattshaw)

    Hi,

    The plugin should be finding the Site URL and the WordPress address without any issues. I just tested this on a fresh install and all works well, so I wonder if it has something to do with the setting being defined in the wp-config.php file.

    One scenario I see quite often is when the Site URL and WordPress address are defined in the wp-config.php file, sometimes the setting in the database is different and it’s easy to miss.

    For example, if the setting in the database is “https://example.com” and in the wp-config file as “https://staging.example.com”, and you then log into the site and search for “https://staging.example.com”, the Site URL and WordPress address wouldn’t be updated since they were in the database as “https://example.com”.

    Could that or something similar be what happened here?

    Thread Starter flamenco

    (@flamenco)

    Thanks for your note, Matt.

    The second time this happened, no, I didn’t use those settings in the config file. So it remains a mystery, I guess.

    Dave

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)
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