How can I restore a site from a Local site folder?

[clay]

Note: Local has come a long way since this was first posted and mostly just works for importing sites. Have a look at our help doc for more current information:

https://getflywheel.com/wordpress-support/how-to-import-a-wordpress-site-into-local/

You probably want the above link, but the below information is being kept for history:

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In case you are seeing a “Container Missing” error or are just needing to restore a Local site from an existing Local site folder, here’s how:

Note: There must be SQL files present in app/sql in order for this to work. Otherwise, the database won’t be able to be restored.

1. Rename all of the folders in your Local Sites folder to something like SITE-backup
2. If the site still exists in Local with a “Container Missing” error, delete it.
3. Create new sites for each using the existing domains and paths. So, if it was site before, you’ll use site again
4. Browse back to the Local Sites folder and delete the newly created site folder and rename SITE-backup back to site. This is done because you can’t create sites over site folders that already exist.
5. Right-click on the site in Local and go to “Open Site SSH”
6. Enter myloader -p root -d /app/sql --overwrite-tables --database local … This will load in the SQL files in /app/sql
7. Check the site and make sure it looks right