Image links broken after changing site address from pre-existing install

Don’t worry, try this plugin: Velvet Blues Update URLs

Hi canah, thanks for your response.

I’ve tried tried that plug in several times for this issue, and the image references all still point to the bad location of ‘example.com/wp-content/uploads/…’.

Here are the results from running the plugin:
Results
10 Content Items (Posts, Pages, Custom Post Types, Revisions)
0 Excerpts
0 Links
6 Attachments
32 Custom Fields

I have hundreds of images on the site.

A little more info: I’ve tried running the plug-in with the following values:

Old URL: https://www.example.com
New URL: https://www.example.com/dev

and

Old URL: https://www.example.com/dev
New URL: https://www.example.com

I tried both just in case I had the two mixed up. Same result with both input sets.

Well, this case looks a little weird, but perhaps it’s a problem with .htaccess or permission. Ok please, try again by following the instruction steps:

1. First of all turn off plugin Velvet Blues Update URLs.

2. Please turn off friendly urls by setting to default.

3. Make a copy of your htaccess file and save it on your device. Then delete this file from your server by ftp manager.

4. Back to the plugins manager and turn on Velvet Blues Update URLs.

5. Please fill the fields with old and new adress. Old is https://www.example.com/dev and the new is https://www.example.com

6. Please select all below fields:

URLs in page content ( posts, pages, custom post types, revisions )
URLs in excerpts
URLs in links
URLs for attachments ( images, documents, general media )
URLs in custom fields and meta boxes

And click on the update button.

7. Back to admin setting and set the friendly urls again.

8. Refresh your browser Ctrl + F5 and check if problem still exists.

I had to restore my pre-migrated site because I’m about to go off the grid for Thanksgiving weekend, and the site was unusable.

I’ll try out your fix early next week though and update with my progress.

Thanks again!

Ok, I hope this will solve your problem. Good luck and keep in touch. ??

So I’ve been really busy and I haven’t had the time to try the steps listed above, but I think I figured out what is going on here.

When I created this development site ‘www.example.com/dev’, I must have done something wrong. It looks like all the image links on the dev site are still pointing to the original site ‘www.example.com/wp-content/uploads…’. I tried my best to follow documentation when I made the dev site, but it was a long time ago so I don’t remember exactly what I did. I remember that I copied the original site and moved it over, but I don’t know the steps I took.

I think if I can manage to fix the image anchors on the dev site to point to ‘wwww.example.com/dev/wp-content…’, it will be smooth sailing when I delete the original site and transition to the dev site.

Does anyone know how I can fix these links? I tried running the Velvet Blues Update URLs plugin to no avail:

Results
9 Content Items (Posts, Pages, Custom Post Types, Revisions)
0 Links
10 Attachments
34 Custom Fields

I always use a php script called searchreplacedb2. Basically it will go through your site and replace strings of text, which is how WordPress stores everything.

Normally I use it when moving a site to another server, so replacing example.ben.dev with example.com through out the site.

In your case, it would be finding “example.com/wp-content” and replacing with “example.com/dev/wp-content”.

The advantage of this script is it will definitely update any serialised strings, which the existing plugin might be skipping.

Thanks! This looks like a great tool.

I’m trying to use it now; I’ve uploaded the file ‘searchreplacedb2.php’ it to ‘example.com/dev/’ and when I try to use my browser to navigate to ‘example.com/dev/searchreplacedb2.php’ I get a 404. Am I being dumb or is my hosting provider possibly preventing me from running this? Or both maybe?

Thanks again!

Hmm. If it can’t find it then you’ve uploaded it to the wrong folder (unlikely), or there is a .htaccess rule getting in the way.

Re-reading this thread, do you still have a full wordpress install on the root, along with one in sub-folder /dev? I suspect that if you do, that the root install of wordpress is interfering. That’d be my first guess.

My second guess would be that the copy to the sub-directory went wrong somewhere, or there are conflicting rules somewhere in wp-config or similar where you’ve tried to fix things.

If my first guess doesn’t work, I think you could save a lot of time and effort by starting from scratch with the instructions you followed the first time. It doesn’t look like there will be a quick fix for this one sorry.

I was afraid that I might have to start over. I do still have a full install in the root, but the copy has its own DB, etc.

Can you elaborate on the possibility of a .htcacess conflict? What comes to mind that might be amiss in the wp-config? And why would these prevent the script from being recognized?

I don’t want to take up too much of your time, but I would love to at least figure out what is wrong so I can learn from this headache.

Thanks!

The root .htaccess will be hit first, so that will definitely be interfering with thee sub-folder. Rename it and see if the sub folder starts to work.

As for wp-config, if you’re renaming the site-url in there that might interfere with anything else you’re doing in the database. It’s been a long time since I’ve used those values, but I’m pretty certain that somewhere in the init script those values will over-rdie anything you have in the database.

This isn’t an issue I’ve ever had, so I’m just trying to think of the basic trouble shooting I’d do, and hope that it helps. I’m 99% certain your issue is with the root install htaccess file though.