How to clone wordpress settings...

by 137 replies
167
Typically when I setup a blog I have to go in apply themes, plugins, etc.
Is there a way to take a ideal blog settings (a master blog) and automatically
apply them to a new blog I setup? Any recommendations or tips?

Any help is appreciated.

Shaan
#website design #clone #settings #wordpress
  • As far as I know there's no 'automatic' way but I'm not techie so could be wrong. However, you can just set up the folder on your hard drive with all the plugins/themes that you use and then when you set up a new blog everything is in one place ready to upload.
  • Yes.

    I just posted this a couple days ago, but...here we go...

    1) go to your cpanel on your hosting and download/export the database for the site from within the phpmyadmin tool. Download the .SQL to your PC.

    2) Edit the .SQL exported file you just downloaded and replace all references to the old domain with the new domain.

    3) Download your whole site from the old host to your computer

    4) On the new host, go to the cpanel and create a new SQL database and DB user

    5) Edit the wp-config of your downloaded site on your PC and edit it with the new database settings and new site. Its only a few lines.

    7) On the new host, import the edited SQL file, you upload it from your PC. Import to the newly created database using phpmyadmin.

    8) Upload the downloaded site to your new host

    This is basically it and works. Sounds a little complicated, but actually is not.

    ALTERNATIVELY....check into Edna's WPDXManager, she sells it here as WSO..its a wordpress mass installer, pretty good. LOTS of features.
    • [ 7 ] Thanks
    • [3] replies
  • Is there any video which explains this? Still seems a little complicated and couldn't fine that WSO
    • [1] reply
    • Would exporting SQL still pull over the plugins and settings?
      • [2] replies
  • im not a techie person and kinda new to IM.

    may i just ask what is the purpose of cloning a website?

    wont it violate any terms of the cloned website?
    • [1] reply
    • Not if you're cloning your own site. That's what they're talking about here. It would have to be your own site if you want access to the DB.
      • [1] reply
  • Make a master file with all the plugins and an empty blog database
    with the settings you like. No posts, just plugins and settings.

    Then you just install that empty blog wherever you want it as
    many times as you like.
    • [3] replies
    • I have asked the same question before with similar results. There is no easy way for a non techie guy, like me, to clone a blog. (it is hard to follow directions when you do not understand the words. It might as well be written in German :-) But anyway, Edna's program is a good one, and helps set up a basic blog quickly, but you still have to go in and install/activate the plugins and tweak thew settings. There is no software that I know of that will clone a blog. And if anyone ever invents one, I will buy it in a nanosecond!
      I gave up trying to do the process myself, and hired a guy in the Philippines that does it for $10 per blog. Quite a reasonable price for me, and good income for him in a country that has very high unemployment, and no jobs. Cheapest price I found in the US for the same job was $50, but there might be someone on the Warrior forum that would do it for $10 also.
      • [2] replies
    • Great idea, it's an enormous time saver that is low-tech (no cloning going on) and free, yet removes a lot of the tedious work with installing and configuring plugins, especially the more complex ones.
    • This is what I do, but I can also see advantages in Edna's software

  • That's an interesting challenge, technically speaking, but not impossible to do.

    There are two parts to a WP install;
    File system - the plugins and themes you'd need to have in folders ready for upload
    Database - this contains the master domain preferences and settings for themes and plugins

    Thinking 'aloud' here...

    1. You'd have to get your file system set up first, which means getting the plugin and theme files copied to your local folder first.
    2. Then you'd have to modify your config.php to contain db connections.
    3. You'd have to modify the WP install files to autoactivate the plugins.
    4. You'd have to modify the WP install files to prepopulate the WP install page parameters (I don't think you'll be able to simply clone an empty db and copy to the destination without first setting up a new WP instance or using some db tool)
    5. Copy all of the modified files into a new directory.
    6. Upload everything and run the normal install page, which is prepopulated to save time.

    Hmmm...not perfect, but workable and it can be automated.

    EDIT: Not hard at all, in fact. Anyone want to beta test? The app looks horrible at the moment, but it's functional.
    • [1] reply
    • I have a much easier and faster way to do this, and more secure
  • I think Mike Filsaime was selling something called Blog Cloner at one point. It's a script designed to .... clone a blog.
    • [1] reply
    • Problem with a lot of cloners is that results vary from host to host, and any I have tried seemed to have a problem with larger files primarily due to restrictions on the deploy server end or timeouts

  • Just experimenting a bit and the only part that's going to be difficult to code is cloning the plugin settings, otherwise everything up to and including autoactivating the plugins is a piece of cake.

    Actually, given the sheer range of plugins and wealth of options available for some of them, I suspect that's going to be impossible without using custom scripting for a known range of plugins.
  • I have a training product automating the blog setup from A to Z. If you are interested, please pm me and I will share with you a Warrior Forum discount link where you can buy the training course at a heavy discount.
  • With WordPress 3.x.x you can set up as many blogs as you want... even with the same settings.
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
    • [1] reply
    • Wow, PilotJoe. Thanks for the heads up. Sounds like just what I was looking for!
  • BackupBuddy : PluginBuddy | WordPress Plugins
    Back up buddy does it for you
    • [1] reply
  • Hi Shaan,

    Some of the software mentioned above (for example duplicating the database) clones a lot more then just the settings. For example they would duplicate the post and pages you already created.

    If you just want to clone the settings and start with an empty blog one way to do it would be a 2 step process:

    1. Keep a folder with the complete wordpress files: wp itself, the themes and plugins you added. Basically these are the files you uploaded to your master blog. Use that one for the fresh installs. Or, if you do Fantastico installation, upload the plugins and theme to your new wp installation.

    2. Find a way to easily transfer the settings from your master blog. Those would be the settings for wp core, plugins, and in some cases theme options.

    Check out these plugins:
    WordPress › Migrate Site Settings WordPress Plugins

    WordPress › SK WP Settings Backup WordPress Plugins

    I have not tested them. There are a few more that do stuff like this, but i couldn't find them now.

    The wp Twin mentioned above looks pretty cool. In that case just make sure your master blog doesn't have any content you don't want on your new blog.

    http://wptwin.net/

    Ralf
    • [1] reply
    • WpTwin will stryggle with larger blogs, I have found that, as will others, not picking on WpTwin, I too would love to see a solution that makes it easy and does all WpTwin can do, I can do it manually, but multiplied by many blogs does take a lot of time

  • For what it is worth Vladimir Prelovac who created the very useful WP PluginCentral has created a new product which will keep track of all your wordpress blogs including cloning them from one blog to another and allow you to upgrade all the plugins on those blogs simultaneously. You have a central control panel on his site and upgrade a small plugin to the sites that you want to manage and or clone.

    You can find it at Manage Multiple WordPress Blogs|ManageWP.com. The basic configuration is free. For me it revolutionised Wordpress.
    • [4] replies
    • WPtwin is the new one. But anyone knows what is the advantage of wptwin compared to blogzapper which does the same thing (clone, backup, etc) but only cost $37?

      Does WPtwin have any WSO? It should cost maybe $37 since externally it costs $77.
      • [2] replies
    • Thanks for this. Looks great, but two security questions from my suspicious / experienced mind :

      1. What is in it for Vladmir if it's a free service? Just list building / rep building?
      2. Would you not worry having all your WP site details on someone else's server?

      Thanks a lot

      Fraser
    • I just tried this out. The ability to manage plugins, posts, and pages was terrific. The cloning was a total bomb for me. I added a blog and tried to clone it to two new sites.

      For the first site, it rejected my username and password even though they work in filezilla.

      For the second site, it made my wordpress installation unusable. I go to the site and an error notification is all that shows.

      I also looked on the support site. I see two other comments about the cloning feature failing and no worthwhile response to them.

      Finally, here is the user guide reprinted in its entirety:
      User guide

      This is just a beginning of a user guide which we hope to expand with time.
      Registration

      To sign up for ManageWP.com please click here.
      Installation

      Using ManageWP service to add new sites to your account is a two step process:
      • Download and activate the ManageWP Worker plugin to your blog(s)
      • Use 'Add New Site' in your ManageWP dashboard to enter site details or use the Import function to load a CSV file
      Using ManageWP

      ManageWP interface is very similar to normal WordPress interface you are used to - go ahead and feel free to experiment.
      Feedback

      To send us feedback, suggest a feature or report a bug please use our support site.
    • Hey Justin, I love plugin central, so I am definately going to have a look at this one

      Cheers

      Gordon

  • I believe by using the WPtwin, we can setup one blog on the first domain with all the plugins that we usually use, Privacy page, Contact Us page, etc.

    Then this software will make it possible for us to clone so that we can save time, and duplicate to make other website on other domains with the same plugins, privacy page, contact us page, etc?

    If so, that sounds good, but is there a choice to clone everything except for the posts and unrelated pages? (if we want to clone just the plugins, privacy pages, contact us page, about us page but not the content page). This is helpful for those have tens of domains and would like to have a quick WP install with several niches but using the same plugins and about us/privacy/contact us info.
    • [1] reply
    • 16 minutes we won the drag race. Without getting techy-geeky on anyway, the way that we take the database is different than blog zapper. That's where the difference in time is. On a small blog, it makes little difference, we win by a few seconds. On a big blog or on certain blogs with plugins where the plugin stores a lot of info in the database, then we win by a big margain.

      It's my understanding that blog zapper has trouble making clones of blogs with databases bigger than 2 megs. however, we just tested ours on an 80 MEG database and it worked fine.

      Organizationer is right - the real leverage is creating a base configuration that you can use over and over (I do this for my download areas for each product and also for my sales letters and niche sites). Heck even the time it saves if you just create a clone of a wordpress with the hello world post deleted, permalinks set up, your 3 favorite plugins installed and the contact info and privacy page... that alone will save you 10-15 minutes for each new blog you set up.

      Now you can't "select" what you want to clone - that is true. You have to clone the whole thing - including any content you have. But that's okay. You know what you do? CLONE the first blog with all the content. Then deploy it somewhere else. Then delete the content you want to delete. Then CLONE that. Yes you can make a clone of a clone that you modified.

      There you go.

      • [2] replies
  • There are other third party tools also available, like Wordpress Direct. I believe that I have seen one or two other WP cloning tools selling on the paydotcom network as well.
  • Banned
    [DELETED]
  • HMMM... Guess that's a NO David. :-)
  • If you don't need to "clone" the content... the rest can be simply done just using WP 3.x.x and a plugin or two. You don't need anything else. Or am I missing something here...?

    (Jason, I sent you a PM a while ago and still wating for reply )
    • [2] replies
    • Istvan,

      I emailed you a few weeks back and want to talk to you specifically about some wordpress stuff.

      PMs are the worst way to get ahold of me. My assistant checks them every so often and then forwards me the ones that need my personal response.

      For a savvy wordpress user like You Istvan, and you are far savvier than I, I'm sure it's not hard for you create backups with the right plugins and wp 3+.

      But what about if you on 2.8.4, which a lot of people still are. Then you upgrade to 3 and your theme breaks (happens A LOT as I'm sure you're aware...). Now your kind of screwed.

      Beyond that, our surveys have showed by our clients that the average person who backs up their blog it takes them between 15 minutes to 30 minutes to perform the backup, and very rarely are the backups they're performing EXACT complete backups.

      The test I always give is this - if you're confident it's a REAL complete backup, delete your entire blog, then restore your back up.

      With wp twin you can do this in a few minutes in 95% of cases (sometimes it takes longer if you have a GIANT wordpress site, but that's only because of the upload time, which is related to your internet connection and not the script...)

      The other issue is this - what happens when we get to wordpress 3.2 - a lot of those backup PLUGINS will have issues because they might not be compatible.

      Since wp twin is NOT a plugin at all - it will not have that issue.

      Again, if you're thinking WP twin is nothing more than a backup tool, you're only realizing about 10% of its power. Not only is it a great backup tool, but the other 90% of its uses are even better

      BTW Instvan, you could probably make a killing in the marketplace with prepackaged clones that you can sell to wp twin users. Your wordpress chops school mine any day of the week!


    • What if you dont want all your blogs on the same Ip and hosting account?

      Istvan - you mention a "special" plugin a couple of times in this thread - which one are you referring to that make cloning wpmu / wp3x - networked sites a breeze?
      • [1] reply
  • Jason,

    I hate PMs, too, but never got your email. We'll have to figure out a way to communicate directly...

    Oh, and I wasn't thinking about the "backup" capability at all, sorry. For me that's such a simple, natural process (exporting the DB and saving/downloading the wp-content folder) that I never think about it as a "task" that needs any kind of script.

    When I said WP 3.x can do the 'cloning' or whatever we call it - I meant exactly that.
    Set up a master blog.
    Enable MS (multi-site) and set the plugins, their options/settings + your favourite theme.
    Install and configure a special plugin.
    Next, start clicking and creating identical WP blogs... except the content, as I mentioned above.
    • [1] reply
    • Hi Istvan,

      I have sent you an email.

      I have purchased your Wordpress MultiSite DreamTool few months ago and use it with great success.

      So far I was able to use MultiSite in sub-domains with DirectAdmin (cPanel's competitors) with no problems at all.

      But with cPanel, it does work so easy.

      Correct me if I'm wrong here but it seems that whenever you want to just add another domain to your main account, cPanel also creates a sub-domain of your main account. This is weird.

      As you know, Wordpress does not allow any sub-domains already on your server in order to use its the sub-domain multisite feature.

      So my question to you Istvan is this:

      How you manage to use the multisite feature in sub-domain with cPanel when your account enables you to host multiple domains?

      Thanks

      Mario Bruneau
  • I'm all for WPTwin, Jason Fladlien's product, I've tried it on my BLOGS that are well over 1GB and it works flawlessly...

    I tried Blog Zapper, won't clone anything over 10MB or so, and other products, they're all 20th Century compared to WPTwin...I currently use WP Desktop Installer, great product but not even close to WPTwin, as far as capabilities...

    You get my vote Jason, now do a "Developer's Version" and it's a "Complete" Arsenal....

    ~AzSno...
  • As far as I know there is now way to get an automatic themes and plugins because if webmaster automatically place the themes and plugins there no way for blog owner to to customize their page, right? You can seek advice to webmaster though
  • After watching the Webinar, is it possible to clone the Primary Domain and also include all Add-On domain files and folders in the clone? This would be backing up your entire hosting account....is this possible?
    • [5] replies
    • Yeap, just did it.

      There's a checkbox in Wp Twin:

      "Include Non-WordPress Folders"
      Note: Selecting this option while cloning a blog on the Primary Domain will also include all Add-On domain files and folders in the clone, and will copy these to files and folders to the destination when deploying the clone. This is NOT recommended for a Primary Domain if you also have Add-On domains configured. If you are not sure what to do, leave this unchecked. "

      I cloned a blog from a primary domain (installed in the root). And with this checkbox checked wptwin also packed another blog installed in the addon-domain.

      So YES with WP Twin you can effectively backup your entire hosting account in one GO.

      Powerful stuff! Yet very easy to use.

      -Allen
    • Jason.
      I'd love to start promoting the product which is why I signed on as an affiliate. Problem is I can't get a response on how commissions are paid (PayPal Check or whatever). I sent this simple question to the help desk 5 days ago and still have had no response. Seems like a pretty simple question. Makes you wonder what kind of response users with a real problem recieve.
      The product sounds great. Please respond so I can start making some promotions for it.
      Thanks...
      Jim
      • [1] reply
    • Thanks GeorgR.

      I just ran into this today setting up my second site. I had the sense to export my first site before I had made any posts; but, I still spent quite a few hours getting everything ready. I actually was wondering if there was another way.

      Also, I run Linux on my home machine so the Windows products won't do me any good; but, then again, I do run Linux so a little geek hackery is something I'm used to.
    • For the record I have tried several of the WP cloner and backup/restore tools and so far none have worked with consistent accuracy. It is very annoying. The latest problem I had was one that lost some of my widgets.

      Best regards, Gren.
      • [1] reply
    • Yes, both CPanel and WHM (the software that your whole site runs on ) can be backed up. This is typically how your host does it. Like in BlueHost these backups are done like daily, weekly and monthly. As you can imagine they are quite large.

      However this wouldn't help you move say a whole domain+subdomains to a new host, as the IP's would all change.
  • I am not a techie AT ALL and unfortunately lost the entire contents of my blog and had to re-start. Someone suggested that I can just use the 'export' function under 'Tools'. It creates an XML file that it says you can import into another Wordpress site.

    is this not a viable option for cloning your site? (pardon the newbie-ness of my answer but i want to also make sure that I'm not going to lose my blog again!)
  • With WP Twin once you backup a website and after you dl it, can you then, from the desktop remove all the content or do you have to install it and then remove content?
    • [2] replies
    • Vladimir has a premium self hosted version, which is an option if you are concerned about Details. It also answers part of what is in it for him. Might be worth asking him more on his blog!

      He is from my limited experience of him a great guy and I used his free plugin central extensively on my wordpress blogs and also use regualry his SEO Doctor firefox plugin.

      The xml file just imports the blog posts from one blog to another. It doesn't import plugins and settings and other database files, like I presume AllinOneSEO and PlatinumSEO settings.

      WP Twin sounds like a very reasonably priced solution though. If I was still doing lots of Wordpress blogs then I suspect that I would be buying it. As it is Vladimirs solution does everything I want it to do.

      As a caveat I had a PM today from someone saying he was having problems cloning using Vladimirs software, so although my initial post said that it would clone, there may be a problem with it.
      • [1] reply
    • Technically speaking WP Twin cloned archive is a zip file. You can unzip the archived site locally and mess around with files and folders...

      The big question is WHY would want to do this?

      The point of using WP Twin is SPEED! (And bulletproof backups)

      Quickly clone, quickly deploy, wipe out the unwanted stuff... (Deleting is always faster than adding stuff in.)
      While your competitors are dorking around with settings, you mass replicate simple money making setups.

      -Allen
  • Jason,
    Perhaps I can get an answer here. Last week I signed on to be an affiliate for WP Twin as it seems to be a good piece of software. The problem I'm having is I couldn't find anywhere how commissions are paid, PayPAl, Check or whatever?? I sent this question in to the support area last week and haven't gotten any answer back yet. Can you tell us here as other potential affiliates may also be interested.
    Thanks...
    Jim
  • Jason, since GinaR had some problems with her webhost, how about a list of hosts that the software won't work for.
    GinaR, what is your webhost?
    • [1] reply
    • When I contacted Jason's support they recommended changing to a more 'standard' host such as hostgator and they have offered me the option of a refund. I have quite a few wordpress sites though and so I would like to get wptwin to work if possible. I am currently with BPweb. I used to have a hostgator account aswell but my wordpress sites were noticeably slower so I don't really want to put any wordpress sites back on there (plus it would be quite a job to move everything). I contacted BPweb and they have said that they do allow the use of some system() and exec() functions but they need to know the exact commands the script is trying to run before they can allow them to be executed. So I have now asked Jason's support for that information. To be honest, I think it is not necessarily a bad thing that my webhosts don't automatically allow people to upload and run random scripts.
      • [2] replies
  • OK, Didn't read 'every' post,

    would macros record and play, play, play work? Should get the browser to repeat browser actions. You'd still have do the initial set-up & database naming, but everything else could be scripted right in iMarcos?

    At least I cannot think of a reason why not. (Though it might exist).
  • I use WP-Cloner from Mass Automation now for about 25 sites and it has worked perfectly. The directions are pretty easy to follow and set up takes about an hour or so then you need to set up a clone site where all your settings are stored.

    The nice aspect is I can go to my cloner site and adjust or add anything I want before starting the next clone if something new comes out such as a plugin for an example.
  • Word press setting is very user friendly to create any blog.
    • [1] reply
    • Yes, it is, but when you want to backup the whole blog incl. settings and posts - you need more than that.

      Marian
  • Sorry if somebody has already provided it, but the two videos on this site will guide you through the whole process! I used them just recently, all the settings remained the same..

    Free Technology Tutorials » How to Move WordPress to a Different Server and Web Address

    Cheers
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • I have been using WPTwin to cloan sites for off line clients. I've setup multiple sites as samples in subdirectories. Each are already configured with all my plugins installed and themes installed.

    When I sell a site to a client they see the "sample" site which is live. They can actually use it and navigate each page. Then I can cloan that exact site in minutes which saves me 2 to 4 hours of setup time.
    • [ 2 ] Thanks
    • [2] replies
    • Dude, Mike, that's an awesome trick!

      Why didn't I think of this myself! Duh!

      (Sending some karma your way.)

      -Allen
    • So are you cloning sites for clients with one licensed copy of wptwin?

      I was told by wptwin that to do that required that each client also have a copy of wptwin.
      • [2] replies
  • Highly recommend Wordpress multisite. I've been moving all my sites to it and it's totally the bomb. And there's a plugin you can use to clone settings to the new sites.

    Faster, easier, less memory. What's not to like??

    BTW, I bought Istvan's WSO on how to do multisite - saved me tons of time. And I still occasionally refer to the transcript, but it's ridiculously easy once you've done it. I've got it deployed now on 3 hosting services and as I have time, I'll move all my sites to the multisite installations.
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
    • [2] replies
    • Hi Guys,

      Question about WPTwin.

      Does it also clone widgets and their contents. If it does - I am sold

      Thank you!

      - Scott
      • [2] replies
    • What's the name of the "plugin you can use to clone settings to the new sites"? Does it clone settings both for WP itself and WP pluggins?

      Would really appreciate to know, cause I also find WP multisite higly recommendable, but I'm missing the opportunity to transfer settings. With that opportunity WP multisite would be a whole different story for both mass blog creation and mass blog administration.

      WP Multisite among other features gives you the opportunity to ugrade both WP itself and/or pluggins for ALL the sites in the network simultaneously!

      Then, I must say I'm very tempted with the speed and opportunities in WP Twin. Only thing I'm thinking about is what about the upgrading issues for WP itself and the pluggins when you use WP Twin?

      Let's say that you after some time have a 100 blogs up and running, and then there is a important upgrade for one or several of the pluggins used in all the blogs? How to easily upgrade the pluggins for all 100 blogs? With WP multisite it would only take a few seconds for each pluggin to do that...

  • Does WP Twin work with multisite?

    From reading the sales page, it appears to me that it does - but I want to double check.

    It would be an awesome timesaver.
  • Bought wptwin and tried it on 2 separate blogs and got errors both times?

    so far not been able to make any backups..

    if fairness to jason i have been asked for my login details, however this is a clients blog with a lot of private work so not to keen, so stuck.

    mark
  • I bought WPTwin and have used it several times. It's fast and easy. I'm no WP expert and have limited technical chops, but I think there's more to this clone... WPTwin... than has been discussed so far. Because it can clone such large sites, I think it is a base platform for a whole marketing structure. I'm not sure how far Jason has developed this yet, but since there is a marketplace for preloaded clones, chances are good that many additional marketing features will be offered as clones in the Marketplace.

    I ssuspect this will become a modular marketing structure that allows anyone to build sophisticated sites that do both sales and customer interaction. It already allows cloning of membership sites so as those membership sites become more interactive the marketing caqpacity willl be more and more interactive. In other words marketing features and membership features combined... a bit like Kajabi only in a modular format. Maybe I'm wrong, but I can see WPClone heading in that direction.
  • Banned
    Very recently there was an ad running on this site for WPTwin. I bought it and it is fantastic. Makes clones anywhere you want them in a couple of minutes. Second link in my sig takes you to my post about it, with my affiliate ad for it.

    I have a lot of domains just sitting around and this program is going to change that. A real time saver.
    • [1] reply
    • After 2 support tickets over the last few
      days, replies to emails that were sent,
      and a phone call into support for WPTwin,
      I've yet to get a response from anyone.

      Maybe a fellow Warrior could help me
      with this...

      The videos show how to set everything
      up in Cpanel. That's cool. However,
      I host with MediaTemple and they have
      Plesk.

      After 4 attempts, not able to get a blog
      to clone.

      I'm assuming that there is either an
      issue using Plesk, it does not work in
      Plesk, or something else?

      One thing I haven't tried is manually
      installing WP and then run WPTwin.
      However, that would defeat the
      purpose of saving tons of time and
      cranking out sites like crazy, you
      know?

      Anyone use Plesk with WPTwin? If
      so, how did you get it to work?

      Thanks guys.
      • [2] replies
  • There's a new clone that I like, only got it last week used a dozen times already.
    WPTwin from Jason Fielden

    GeoJ
  • Any WSO for wp-twin?
  • I got wptwin a few days ago and have successfully used it for 4 clones so far. Very satisfied with it on my sites.
    • [1] reply
    • This is an solicited testimonial to how WPTwin can save your butt in pinch if you do something tragically stupid to your money making sites (like tinkering around with files on the server.)

      This is not some hypothetical scenario. This is life. With the proverbial sh..t happening left and right. This is what happened to me. (Your experience may vary.)

      I have a silly setup -- a shared hosting account with a bunch of affiliate sites sharing the same domain.

      In the root of that domain sits an old massive wordpress site with dozens of pages and posts, and custom folders sprawling all over. (Dumb, I know. But I didn't know better at the time.)

      -----------------------------------------------

      Three days ago I got a bright idea to do some housekeeping on that mess. I bravely launched Filezilla and started deleting files... moving folders... renaming things.

      Yesterday I get a panic email from an overseas outsourcer building the backlinks: "Dear Sir! I regret to inform you, but your site is nowhere to be found in Google!"

      I log in. Verily: A big ass error: "Cannot Establish Database Connection."

      I search Google "How to fix... that error whatever it is..."

      The answers might have as well been written in cuneiform -- undecipherable.

      So I am royally screwed...

      ---------------------------------------

      (A month ago, I'd have a freaking heart attack!)

      Lucky me, 10 days ago I made a clone of that site to make some templates out of it.

      So, I just popped a beer ("Dos Equis"), enjoyed the flavor for about 4 minutes while the clone is uploading, presses the deploy button and the site is up. As good as new.

      The only things I lost in the hiatus were the site's headline and subhead. Even the login admin and the password were the same! (Which I couldn't remember for the life of me, but the trusty Roboform did.)

      There you have it -- WP Twin in action. Saved my day.

      Yes, there may be cheaper solutions to backup wp sites...

      But Twin works like a charm. And now I know that on my own skin. And that means I can sleep soundly and not agonize, if something happens, will my backup work ... or will it not.

      Thanks Jason! Thanks Wilson!


      -Allen


      P.S. Guys, I have I question for those of you more technically astute than me.

      Say WPTwin was a plugin (instead of being an external script) and I had the same fubar where I am unable to even login into the WP Dashboard, like I had in my case... how would I restore the backup then?


      .
      • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • Tomasg,
    What plugins were you having problems with? I'm just curious.
    Mike
    • [2] replies
    • Mike,

      Not sure yet. I wasn't expecting any problems at all and am still not convinced that a pluin is the problem.

      I am awaiting Jason or Wil to figure it out.

      As soon as they get it resolved, I will report back.

      Tomas
      • [1] reply
    • Mike,

      Problem was solved today. It was not the plugins after all. The problem was with the custom database user permissions I had set.

      WP Twin apparently requires database user permissions to be set to all. Once I changed the permissions, the clone deployed perfectly.

      Thanks to Jason and Will for their help in resolving this issue.

      Tomas
      • [1] reply
  • [DELETED]
  • WPTwin works wonderful for backing up and cloning blogs. It's fast and very easy to use.



    Cindy
  • For security reasons and because I lost one of my site, I decided to Back up all of them.

    I didn't try Backup Buddy so I can talk about it.

    But I purchased WP-Twin and I'm very happy with it.

    It works well, it's easy and incredibly quick to back up any website.



    You're right. I found that it just takes a little bit more time to clone some bigger site.

    As for some really larger sites, I didn't try it yet.
    • [1] reply
    • Hello everyone

      I'm not the best in all those IT things. Still I was the best one to sign up for the job in our students project. I maintained the website focusindia.ch for this years project. It is a project which is taking place every year. I therefore must now shift the current blog to the domain focusindia.ch/focusindia2010.
      Both should operate individually in the end. I tried using WPTwin, it either just creates an unusable copy (no user files copied in the MySQL) or links it with the blog on focusindia.ch. The whole idea behind it is, that the new webmaster can take over my old website and just deletethe blogposts and adapt the pages, sponsors etc. to his needs.

      How would I achieve this the best?

  • I can do that for you
    • [1] reply
    • thanks.I used Blog Zapper and it worked contrary to WPTwin like a charm.
  • I have a blog cloner, that kinda works like mail merge from the 80's. If you are batch cloning it's very handy, and the merge data is csv driven so can be generated by other tools. It basically automates what was described, But I haven't really thought about releasing this to the public yet not even sure what it's worth.

    For small things, backup buddy and or exporting SQL isn't too hard.
  • Thank you for sharing your experience.
  • Just bought a wp plugin called Back up creator backed up my blog and created a new ones - everthing installed in 10 minutes Can be bought at the site with the same name $17.00
  • Count me in as another vote for WPTwin.

    I work with a huge number of Wordpress sites and use WPTwin to very quickly setup new ones, as well as backing things up.

    I went from taking most of a day to setup a new Wordpress site and customize it, to taking 15-30 minutes by using WPTwin.

    From using WPTwin I had made my money back by saving time in less than 2 days and cannot recommend this tool highly enough
  • WPTwin has made my life much easier, I have made a lot of transfers and clonings for me and my customers so far.
  • Configure a Wordpress Multisite
  • the free way: use XCloner I think it's xcloner.com they have a joomla and wordpress version.
    • [1] reply
    • Thanks Emmanuel for this heads up. I will certainly try this for some client Joomla sites as they are always a pain to backup, move or restore. And I have, as yet, not found a simple solution.

      Tomas
      • [1] reply
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    How to clone wordpress settings...

    Typically when I setup a blog I have to go in apply themes, plugins, etc. Is there a way to take a ideal blog settings (a master blog) and automatically apply them to a new blog I setup? Any recommendations or tips?