LocalWP sites missing after C: drive became full & sudden shutdown (sites still exist on disk)

[raihan]

Hi everyone,

I’m facing an issue with LocalWP and would appreciate some guidance.

What happened

• My Windows 10 system suddenly ran out of space on Local Disk (C:) – 0 bytes free

• The computer froze and shut down unexpectedly

• After restarting, LocalWP opened normally but all my old sites were missing

Current situation

• The site files are still present on disk:

  C:\Users\GM Team\Local Sites
  
  

• Each site folder still contains its data (app, conf, logs, etc.)

• However, none of these sites appear inside the LocalWP app

• I already tried:

  • Restarting the PC

  • Restarting LocalWP

  • Updating LocalWP to the latest version

• The issue persists

Observation

It seems LocalWP may have lost its internal site registry/config after the system ran out of disk space and shut down abruptly. The data is not deleted, but LocalWP no longer recognizes the existing sites.

Question: Is there a way to force LocalWP to re-scan existing sites from the Local Sites directory?

Any help or official guidance would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance!

[nickc]

Hi, @raihan, and welcome to the Local Community!

I’m sorry to hear about the sudden shutdown. You can try to restore your sites by zipping and re-importing the site folders:

1. Make sure you have enough free disk space.

2. Follow the guide here to re-import your sites:

   https://localwp.com/help-docs/getting-started/how-to-import-a-wordpress-site-into-local/#restore-local-site-from-site-files

If you get stuck at a particular step, feel free to let us know.

[raihan]

thanks for the reply!

I followed the re-import guide carefully and made sure there is sufficient free disk space. However, I’m running into a blocker that seems related to LocalWP’s internal domain registry.

Issue details

When I try to zip and re-import an existing site, I get this error:

Invalid Domain
wp-site-test-recheck.local is already taken by another site. Please choose a different domain.

The problem is:

• That domain is not visible in the LocalWP UI

• No site with that domain appears in the app

• But LocalWP still thinks the domain is “in use”

Additional related issue

I also tried creating a brand-new site:

• Filled in all details

• Clicked Add Site

• LocalWP hangs / gets stuck, nothing happens

• After force-closing LocalWP and retrying, I get the same error:

  domain.local is already taken by another site

• Yet again, no site appears in LocalWP

So currently:

• Old sites exist on disk but are not listed

• New sites cannot be created

• Domains are being reserved invisibly

• Import fails due to “already taken” domains that don’t exist in UI

[nickc]

@raihan Thanks for following up!

This may be because the site folders still exist in your Local Sites directory. Try this:

1. zip up one of the folders.
2. Move that folder outside the Local Sites directory.
3. Drag the zip file into Local.

That should allow you to recreate the site without the domain conflict messages.

[raihan]

I already tried this exactly. Even after deleting the site folder and importing the zip from outside Local Sites, I still get “Invalid Domain already taken” for invisible sites.

[nickc]

Sorry for the trouble, @raihan. You can either give the site another name, or try this:

1. Quit Local.
2. Open Windows File Explorer.
3. Make sure you have enabled “show hidden items” ( View → Show, then select Hidden items to view hidden files and folders.)
4. In File Explorer, browse to This PC → [your hard drive] → Users → [your username] → AppData → Roaming → Local.
5. Rename the sites.json file (it might just appear as ‘sites’) to sites-backup.json.
6. Rename the sites-organization.json file to sites-organization-backup.json.
7. Start Local. It will load without displaying sites, but you can import them again as described above with drag and drop.

[raihan]

Already did it & fixed. Thanks man.

[nickc]

You’re welcome! Thanks for letting us know that solved it.