Downloaded website files, can’t make it work

  • Resolved baksahaver

    (@baksahaver)


    2 years, 2 months ago

    Hello, I make websites for my clients. One of my clients had a website via wordpress, but it didn’t live when she contacted me. The problem is that the website was unreachable so I could’n export the websites with a plugin, I needed to download the files via Filezilla. When I tried to upload it to another ftp of course it didn’t work. I could find the pictures but she needs the texts, links, etc. from her website. She worked on the site for almost 10 years so she is very sad, because of the loss. Can I do anything to make the website run again with the existing files or it is unsavable?
    I have all of the files (index.php, wp-admin, wp-includes etc.)
    Thank you for your help in advance. Have a great day.

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  • I needed to download the files via Filezilla.

    This will give you just the WordPress files and uploaded media files, and does NOT include the database.

    The database contains info like users, all site configuration data (including WordPress itself, plugins, and the active theme), and most importantly, all the text published on the site.

    Can I do anything to make the website run again with the existing files or it is unsavable?

    It seems the database was not transferred over. There’s unfortunately no way to “generate” a site’s database to bring back the content if it is lost.

    And that’s quite unfortunate to lose 10 years of work, especially as a simple Google search for how to back up a WordPress site manually could have prevented this.

    If you still have access to the old hosting account, see if you can grab the database as well (or contact the old host to see if they have a complete backup of the site). Here’s te official guide on how to properly backup a WordPress site (manual option included), and there are thousands of blog posts that address this topic as well.

    As a last resort, type the domain name into the WayBackMachine at the Internet Archive (https://archive.org/) to see if you can find a recent archive of the site there.

    If you’re lucky enough to find a recent archive of the site in the WayBackMachine, note that it’s going to be a laborious work of copying and pasting individual posts and pages.

    Good luck!

    Thread Starter baksahaver

    (@baksahaver)

    Thank you so much George, you saved my life. The archive.org solution worked. My client is very happy.

    • This reply was modified 2 years, 2 months ago by baksahaver.
Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)
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