philbertdog

Keep two instances, but use same theme for them so that they will have the same look & feel. Letting others to belive they are in the same site.

I cast my vote for this choice. Hopefully changing the theme will be a simple matter which will allow you to get back to work on your content asap. Congrats on your impressive traffic!

@jan Dembowski

First, I have no personal beef with you, I really don’t. I’m just trying to warn you that you are giving out bad advice on WP migration. The tutorial you keep linking to…

https://move.wordpress.com/

Contains inaccurate information. Bogus. Wrong. False. And I can prove it.

If the migration tools built in to WordPress work, why are literally millions of people installing migration plugins, as is very well documented right here on this site? I’ve asked this question over and over on WP.com, and they keep dodging it (while otherwise being consistently helpful), because they know the importer is crap. They know it, they just prefer not to admit it.

If you still don’t believe me, please search Google for this topic and you will have no trouble at all finding others who are having the very same issues. Here’s an example:

https://tjkelly.com/blog/wordpress-import-failed-how-to-fix-it/

Please scan that article and look at the extreme solution this fellow has had to pursue to get WP imports to work. Please scan the comment section and meet the others wrestling with this problem.

Please read the post I just offered you where I patiently ran yet another test of the WP importer and explained in careful detail, step by step, with no hysteria or editorial “blogging”, exactly how the importer failed.

On this particular topic, please educate yourself before you run around the forum lecturing people and squashing threads which you might actually learn something from.

On other topics, I’m sure you know a LOT. But on this topic, you don’t. And you may never learn, if you keep deleting everything you don’t already understand.

Ok, I’m done. You can delete this now too, I know how you enjoy that. ??

Hey, make me a mod on this forum, cause as it turns out I kinda like lecturing too! Like, you know, probably way too much. I finally found a place where I fit in! ??

The original poster asked a perfectly reasonable question…

In other words, for my next plugin, I would really like to try and find a feature/problem that’s been in high-demand for a long time and solve it with a new plugin.

As best I can tell, the original poster made no attempt to sell anybody anything. The mods should butt out of the thread until such time as that happens. Here’s why…

I believe I might have a pretty good answer to the poster’s question. If that is true, the resulting product could be of great service to me, and many others. But we can’t discuss that possibility on this forum. Here’s why…

The mods are volunteers. They’re burned out, and apparently pissed off as a result. And so they invade thread after thread after thread to share their emotional frustrations. Here’s proof. The mods could have simply deleted this thread if in their judgment it is not useful. But instead, they hijacked the thread (yet again!) and used it to express their spam burnout, for about the thousandth time.

There’s a solution. If the mods are burned out on human beings, I can totally relate to that. Really, I can. So stop being a mod. Retiring mods will either be replaced by fresh faces, or the forum will collapse. Either would be an improvement over the status quo.

I came to this forum to read about WordPress solutions. Not about the mod’s emotional frustrations. If you just have to rant about spam, could you perhaps create a new category on the forum and limit your spam rants to that section?

Thanks for listening.

Ok, I found a solution. I’m bailing on WordPress. That should work! ??

Thanks for your replies, and good luck with your projects. I admire and applaud the “simple is beautiful” design of your plugin, but regrettably it’s attached to a CMS that is too unreliable to merit any more of my time.

This thread can now be closed or deleted etc.

I found one mistake I was making, searching for a URL that begins with https:// when it should have been https:// When I run the find/replace again with correct data I think it works, except…

When ever I click on one of the new links it brings up an Internal Server Error, thus killing most of the site. Luckily it’s a test site that can be discarded if needed.

Another find and replace, very carefully inspected, still does not work.

Next step, fresh install of WordPress, and a fresh import of the XML file from WordPress.com. If that doesn’t help it seems I’m out of options.

Not that this helps, but FYI, I’ve been building sites for 25 years and have coded my own CMS from scratch. This is the first time I’ve seen something as simple as a find and replace turn in to a major operation. Best I can tell, the underlying problem is WordPress’s use of mySQL as the data storage medium, which seems to complicate such simple matters as find and replace beyond reason.

I moved the test account to a 2nd host. No difference, All In One still won’t do find and replace.

I do an export, with two find and replace operations. Then I import that file back in.

I’m clearing my browser cache and relaunching Chrome after each attempt.

In case I didn’t make it clear, I’m trying to change a couple URLs across an entire site, about 200 posts and pages. So for example…

FIND: https://nuke-ban.org/
REPLACE WITH: https://nuke-ban.com/

============

I just tested on the new server using another find/replace plugin. Doesn’t work either.

============

So maybe the database is the problem? I guess all that’s left is to start again from scratch. Create a new install of WP, and import the XML file again. My real site is on WordPress.com and the only way to export the data from there is via the XML file they provide.

============

If that doesn’t work then I guess it’s time to face the fact that I just wasted 6 months building a site in WordPress.

Thanks for your reply.

Find/replace works only on the database.

Yes, I understand this part.

The other option is that the content is stored not as a plain string in the database but in some other format like base64 so it is not found when you search for it.

I can’t speak to this other than report that I’m trying to find and replace URLs in pages and posts which were created in the regular WordPress interface.

I’m moving my entire testing operation to another host to rule the host in or out as the source of the problem. Perhaps that will help.

All-in-One WP Migration installs and activates on first try on DirectNic. Can’t comment on it otherwise yet, and don’t know what if anything this might tell us.

I created a brand new fresh install of WordPress on the problem host (Directnic.com). Different directory and domain name. Installing Duplicator via WP plugin installer still fails. It looks like some of the files get uploaded and some don’t.

So I deleted all Duplicator files from the server, and uploaded them manually via FTP. WordPress doesn’t see Duplicator, it doesn’t show up under Installed Plugins.

As reported above, I have been able to install other plugins on this host without difficulty. UpDraft and Participants Database and some others I don’t recall now.

I’ve also been attempting to learn how to move a WP site manually without help from any plugins. That’s a pretty big pain in the butt, still haven’t got it working once, which is helping me appreciate the value of plugins like Duplicator.

So, as best I can tell there is some kind of fatal conflict between Duplicator and DirectNic which I am not qualified to diagnose. Not a crisis as I am just using test sites to learn how to migrate.

Thanks Cory, how about the reverse? Can I install Duplicator by uploading the files in to wp-content/plugins/duplicator via FTP? See any problems with this? Appreciate it!

WordPress is both built and supported for free by volunteers who do this on their free time. So *you* must resolve your problem, because nobody here can do anything to your site, in any way whatsoever.

This is a forum for technical questions about WordPress. The mods have asked me to focus on technical questions about WordPress, which seems a good plan. So I’ve asked a technical question about WordPress.

It would have been entirely reasonable for you to ignore my technical question about WordPress. Or to try to answer my technical question about WordPress, should doing so interest you.

Instead of ignoring or answering my technical question about WordPress you’ve used the opportunity to try to change the subject of the thread to your preferred learning methodology, and to lecture me, which seems to be one of the themes of this site. And by using your power as a mod to change the topic of my thread, you’ve likely made it so no one else will engage the question I’ve asked.

If would have been more helpful if you had instead chosen to simply ignore a question which you don’t wish to engage. I have no problem with that, for we agree there is no obligation on your part.

Given this thread is not going to be about my question after all, I cede it to you for whatever purpose you find enjoyable.

From the article linked to above…

If database and URL remain the same, you can move by just copying your files and database.

If database name or user changes, edit wp-config.php to have the correct values.

If you want to test before you switch, you must temporarily change “siteurl” and “home” in the database table “wp_options” (through phpMyAdmin or similar).

If you had any kind of rewrites (permalinks) setup you must disable .htaccess and reconfigure permalinks when it goes live.

This is why people ask questions on forums. Unless one is already an experienced WordPress user much of the above won’t make sense. The author of that article assumes I am him, but I am instead me. He says…

you can move by just copying your files and database.

I know how to move the files. How do you move the database?

If you want to test before you switch, you must temporarily change “siteurl” and “home” in the database table “wp_options” (through phpMyAdmin or similar).

If you had any kind of rewrites (permalinks) setup you must disable .htaccess and reconfigure permalinks when it goes live.

Completely worthless information to a novice user.

Thank you. I’ve read MANY such articles, including that one, and still appear to be having problems, which I’ve attempted to specifically identify in the hopes of finding a specific answer.

All I need to know for the moment is the appropriate way to uninstall Duplicator so that I can run a series of install tests on the 2nd host.

Can I uninstall simply by deleting all Duplicator files via FTP?

Or, does an install add data to the database that I need to be aware of?

If a series of installs on the 2nd host all work, that directs our attention to some problem on the 1st host where installs are failing.

The install and activation on the 2nd server worked the first time.

I’m willing to do a few more install tests to double check the results.

To prepare for another test should I first delete all the Duplicator folder and all files within? Any other advice?

Regrettably, getting Duplicator to work on only one server won’t help given the purpose of the plugin. Will ponder further. Seems like maybe I need to learn how to move WP sites manually…