Integration of an existing WordPress installation in Local WP

What issue or error are you experiencing?


Hello, I constantly have problems with XAMPP and now I want to test another local environment.
I have a duplicated and secured website with the plugin duplicator. How can I integrate them into Localwp?
I need the name of the folder in which the complete websites are stored in LocalWP. (As with XAMPP Htdocs)
many Thanks


System Details

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  • Operating System (OS) and OS version:


Local Logs

Attach your Local Logs here (Help Doc - Retrieving Local’s Log)


Security Reminder
Local does a pretty good job of scrubbing private info from the logs and the errors it produces, however there’s always the possibility that something private can come through. Because these are public forums, always review the screenshots you are sharing to make sure there isn’t private info like passwords being displayed.

I have used Local to create a different demo site with no issues, but now I am trying to create a local site for a domain that has expired, but I have all the original files. I got a warning that files would be overwritten but after I accepted this the site could not be loaded. I used the original ZIP file but is there a way to used all the extracted files?

Hi @ChecMark @mikehh

There are a few different ways of importing a site into Local. If you want to import a backup zip file, Local really just needs a wp-content and MySQL within that zip to be able to successfully import it by just dragging and dropping that zip over the app. If you find that this import method isn’t working or you’re missing items, you can do a more manual import style by creating a new, blank Local site and then just manually moving in your files and DB. We have steps on all these methods here:

Manually Import a Local Site

If I’m misunderstanding anything in your post/comment please share some more details and feel free to include any screenshots or a short video.

Thank you for your speedy reply.

This was a site I spent two years building when I lived in Mexico. When I was forced back to Canada I downloaded both a ZIP file and all the site files. After the domain expired obviously I could not restore the site, but it is a model for new travel sites I’m doing.

In Local first I used the ZIP file, but got the warning about files being overwritten which I accepted but then the site wouldn’t load. I also have what I think is the full site files, including the SQL file in a separate folder. 620 MB in total. I’m not sure how to delete the site that’s not working and try to use this folder instead.

Appreciate your help.

If you want to delete the whole site, you can simply Right Click the site name in your Local app and then select the delete option.

After that it sounds like it might be better for you to spin up a new, blank site in Local and then manually move your contents in using the steps from that article I shared above.

If this site is a bit older, it’s possible you might right into some critical errors due to incompatibility with newer versions of WordPress and PHP. So you might have to disable plugins, swap themes, etc to get access if those sorts of thing start coming up as blockers.

Took forever to delete the site! I started creating a new site but got a strange popup asking me if I would allow changes to the Windows Command Processor. That sounded dangerous so I said no and then got another “Uh Oh” error. I clicked on “okay” and it continued. I renamed wp-content and copied over some twenty-three thousand files in the wp-content folder of the site. I was lost on the next step, AdminerEvo. I did my best with the same SQL file, although I was confused, but got this -

Error in query (1062): Duplicate entry ‘1’ for key ‘PRIMARY’

43 queries executed OK. (6.437 s)

Got the same “site cannot be reached” when I clicked on WP Admin or Open Site.

I guess I give up trying to get the site back. I tried.

Thanks for your help.

Local needs permission on your machine to make certain changes like updating your hosts file, so that may have been what you saw. If you try again you can send us a screenshot to confirm.

Regarding the critical error, looks like someone else ran into this here:

Hello,
I don’t know if you know the WordPress plugin Duplicator, I created a backup with it of the entire page. There are then only 2 files, a zip file that apparently contains all content including database content and another file with the name Installer.php. Usually you copy these two files into the corresponding website folder and only call up the installer.php via the browser, everything else runs on its own and a website is completely set up. I will try to pull the zip file over, let’s see if it works.
I can’t do more at the moment because the SQL database within XAMPP no longer opens and I can no longer get to my website.
Many thanks and best regards

If you’re still having trouble you could try the plugin WP Migrate Lite which is free and will create a full site export zip for you. Then you can take that and just drag and drop it into Local to try and start the native import. If that doesn’t work you can use the manual steps I linked above to unzip the file and move the pieces into a blank install.

The root of the problem here is that I don’t know if the website files I downloaded are the total files because the domain had expired before I got a chance to check. No doubt the Windows Command Processor popup I said “no” to also had some effect because I then got the “uh oh” error popup.

When the theme developer suddenly wanted eighty bucks for every site that I had used the theme on for years I had to rebuild them all using the divi theme. My hosting company created subdomains divi/domainname for all of them so I could rebuild them and then move them to the live sites, so I’m going to see if they can do the same to recreate this site before I give up.

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Thank you for the follow up @ChecMark! Best of luck and if you have any other questions or concerns regarding the Local side of things don’t hesitate to reach back out.

Hello,
Copying the page went well, some settings were gone, but I was able to re -adjust it.
But now I have a new problem. I would like to make backups and copies with the plugin “Duplicator” and get the following error message:
WordPress-Installationsverzeichnis: C:/Users/As a precaution, I did not specify the specification of the complete directory
A reserved file(s) was found in the WordPress root directory. Reserved file names include [dup-installer (Verzeichnis), installer.php, [HASH]installer.php, installer-backup.php, [HASH]installer-backup.php, [HASH]archive.zip|daf, dup-installer-bootlog[HASH].txt, dup-wp-config-arc_[HASH].txt]. To archive your data correctly please remove any of these files from your WordPress root directory. Then try creating your package again.
Can I delete the required files without any problems, or does nothing work again?
Many thanks for your answer and best greetings, Mike

I’m not familiar with Duplicator but it sounds like it is just referencing some core/redundant files.

You could always make a simple backup first using our export feature, copying your site folders, Cloud Backups, or a free plugin like WP Migrate Lite. That way you’re completely covered if something does go awry.

I have yet another demo site to build, but nobody has answered me about the frightening popup I get about the Windows Command. I don’t know if not accepting it is causing the “page not found” error.

Hi @ChecMark Sorry for not following up, your user account here started creating some spam comments we had to delete. You might want to scan and check your machine for any infections.

That said we’re happy to look into this further if it’s still a blocker for you. Could you perhaps record a short video using Loom or similar so we can see what steps you’re taking and what error(s) are popping up?

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