How to Migrate or Backup a website with All-in-one WP Migration plugin

Moving WordPress Sites to a new host can be a annoying experience. If you don’t have enough experience, everything  that can possibly go wrong. In order to get around the problem, in the following tutorial I’ll detail how to quickly move old site to new host using All-in-one WP Migration.

It is a free-but-powerful and certainly one of the best free ways to move a WordPress site, which makes migrating is nothing to be concerned about.

Let’s run through the step-by-step directions to move your WordPress site.

1. Installing and Activating of All-in-one WP Migration

In order to install plugin, simply go to Plugins -> Add New and search for All-in-one WP Migration.

Select Install Now button, then click on Activate to get the plugin ready for use.

2. Export a backup

Simply navigate to All-in-One WP Migration -> Export, here you can create and export a file backup easily.

So here you have 2 options now:  Continue to use the free version or Upgrade to a paid subscription.

2.1 Free Version

Currently, the free version is limited to 512 MB. In order to reduce the size of backup, you can always export without images, plugins or spam comments, etc.

Using the Advanced Options button, you can limit the exportable content types.

2.2 Paid Version

3. Import a backup

Repeat step 1 to install the plugin on your target site like you did on original site.

General step is simply navigate to All-in-One WP Migration -> Import, specific import option (in this case is From File) and select backup file.

Once you have received below message, that means the import has been successfully.

Note that the backup was restored, the account credentials of new site will be replaced by original site. 

Then, go to Settings -> Permalink and click Save Changes button twice.

3.1 Paid Subscription

This is my recommendation, you can save yourself a lot of time and energy. You can remove size limit, receive lifetime updates, unlimited sites & support by purchasing Unlimited Extension, which costs 69$.

Repeat general step and select backup file that exported in step 2.2

3.2 Free Version

In the latest version, the plugin uses wp_max_upload_size() to impose size limit. In this post, they described how to adjust these limits.

Or the easiest way is to download & install free extension here. You can read install instructions here.

Repeat general step and select backup file that exported in step 2.1

Upload excluded files to new site.

Congratulations, you’ve now successfully imported your site. However, all images are returning 404 errors.

Don’t  worry, all you need to do is upload images & other files inside ‘uploads’ folder of original site to ‘uploads’ folder of target site because after imported backup, you already have ‘uploads’ folder on target site.

You have to take a look at 2 ‘uploads’ folder on both site to compare which sub-folders are missing on target site and upload from original site. It can be done using FTP client.

After uploaded, clear browser cache and clear cache if you use any caching plugins. Now refresh browser and you’ll see that all images and other medial files are in place.

Troubleshooting

The most common issue you might face that is stuck or unable to import the backup file. There is a solution for this case, follow below steps

– Connect to target site via FTP (using FileZilla client)

– If the plugin has been installed, you will see a folder called ‘ai1wm-backups‘ in wp-content folder

– Upload the backup file into this folder

– Now, you need to return to target site and login to site. Go to All-in-One WP Migration -> Backups

– Here, you will see backup file is uploaded. Just hit the Restore button, the import will take place as normal and your site should be restored within few seconds.

Conclusions