How to migrate your site to Flywheel using BackWPup

Table of Contents:

1. Install and activate the free BackWPup plugin
2. Create and configure a new backup job
3. Run the backup job
4. Download the backup
5. Unzip the backup file
6. Upload your site files via SFTP
7. Upload the database SQL file via the Database Manager
8. If necessary, update the database prefix
9. If necessary, update domains and links to the Flywheel temporary URL

Install and activate the free BackWPup plugin

1. Navigate to the Plugins page of your WordPress admin area and install BackWPup.
   
2. Alternatively, you can download the plugin from the WordPress plugin directory and install it manually.

Create and configure a new backup job

1. Navigate to the BackWPup menu on the sidebar and select Add new job.
   
2. Enter a name for your backup job. Make sure the Database backup and File backup boxes are checked. Select Tar GZip for the Archive Format.
   
3. Make sure Backup to Folder is checked.
   
4. Click Save changes.

Run the backup job

1. Navigate to the BackWPup menu on the sidebar and select Jobs.
2. Hover over the job you created and choose Run Now.
   
3. Depending on the size of your site, your backup may take a few minutes to complete.

Download the backup

1. Navigate to the BackWPup menu on the sidebar and select Backups.
2. Hover over the backup you created and select Download
   .

Unzip the backup file

1. On a Mac, double click the file to open it.
2. On Windows, you’ll want to make sure you have an archive program installed like 7-Zip.
3. If the backup completed successfully, you will see various files and folders – make sure a folder named wp-content and a file with the extension .sql are present. These contain all the information required to recreate the site on Flywheel.
   

Upload your site files via SFTP

1. If you haven’t already, create a new site on Flywheel.
2. Log in to your Flywheel SFTP account, and open the destination site folder. (If you’re not sure how to connect to your Flywheel site via SFTP, check out this help article: How to access your site via SFTP.)
3. Open up the wp-content folder of the destination site, and begin copying the files over from your local computer’s wp-content folder to your Flywheel site.

Upload the database SQL file via the Database Manager

1. Log in to your Flywheel dashboard and find your site.
2. Navigate to the Advanced tab and locate the Database card. Click the Manage Database button.
   
3. Select the Import tab.
4. Click Choose File and locate the backup’s database file (the file with the .sql extension).
5. Click Import File.

If necessary, update the database prefix

Your site’s prefix can be configured from the Advanced tab of the site’s Flywheel dashboard on the Database card. This value should match the database’s actual prefix.

1. To confirm your database’s actual prefix, click Manage Database.
2. Enter the term “users” in the search bar. This will bring up the users table, which is a trustworthy indicator of the database’s prefix.
3. The database prefix is an identical string of characters at the beginning of every single table name in your database. The default is “wp_” but frequently varies. Prefixes almost always end with an underscore. In this example, the database prefix is “wp_”.
4. If the prefix value on your site’s Database card differs, you can update it.
5. Click the 3 dot menu icon next to the prefix and click Change.
   
6. Enter the database’s actual prefix and click Change Prefix.

If necessary, update domains and links to the Flywheel temporary URL

Depending on how the original site was built and how it stores its data in the database, this step may not be necessary. Often, the domain which was being used to build the original site being imported will still remain in the database.

You can easily run a search-and-replace by using a plugin like Better Search Replace, or by using SQL commands from the Advanced tab of the site’s Flywheel Dashboard, if you’re comfortable doing so. Otherwise, feel free to reach out to Flywheel Support for a search-and-replace.

Still need help?

If you run into any snags migrating your site, get in touch with our Happiness Engineers, they’ll be happy to help point the way!