I installed WP Migrate Lite and exported to zip. I was sure to click all the buttons for things like exporting plugins and media files. I then imported the zip to Local. It completes without error and my site shows up – except no plugins or media have been migrated. (so no Elementor, no images on the home page, etc.)
What steps can be taken to replicate the issue? Feel free to include screenshots, videos, etc
System Details
Local Version: 9.1.0
Operating System (OS) and OS version: MacOS Sonoma
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.
First of all I got MacOS to trust the local certificate. Not sure if that changed anything.
Second, when I opened the site, it was showing the front page with no theme or images. But when I clicked on the “contact” link it took me to my contact page. Now it looked correct, with Elementor and images. Then when I clicked on Home in the menu it took me to the front page, and now it had the proper structure and appearance (Elementor was working; all images were present).
Is it supposed to work this way? Do you think something is wrong, or can I trust development on this local site now and eventually push it out to my domain?
Thanks,
Mike
Correction. It’s still not working on local. The buttons actually took me to the hosted domain. Apparently I need to do search and replace but I’m not sure if I should do that in WP Migrate or in Local.
Did you alter your domain in Local? You’ll want to make sure it’s still mike.local or localhost:12345 depending on your Router Mode and don’t change it to match the live site.
Next you’ll want to check Elementor’s settings because it can be very “sticky” about remembering domains and things. You can Regenerate CSS in Elementor which is like a “cache flush” and if that doesn’t fix things up you might have to do some manual search and replacing.
There are some steps for all of this in our Live Links troubleshooting guide here. I know you’re not troubleshooting LL, but the information is really similar.
No solution found, but I do have a caching plugin on my site at https://learnwithmikemossey.com … I could deactivate it before exporting the site. I could deactivate my security plugin as well. Those two seem to be pretty heavy handed, for instance changing htaccess.
Here are some comments on the rest of the debugging ideas:
I’m not sure what you’re asking here. I didn’t alter any of the default settings that Local provided me with.
The problem with checking Elementor’s settings is that I can’t get to Elementor, if it was even migrated. My front page (the only thing I can see in the migrated site) is completely messed up and appears to be a default theme with default style.
I could check Elementor’s settings before doing the migrate, but I’m not sure that’s what you mean.
It appears that both Local and WP Migrate offer some kind of search and replace (Migrate while exporting and Local while importing), but I don’t know if I should be using that, which one I should use, and what the search/replace terms would be.
The debug page mentions some kind of search/replace tool, but clicking on “Site Shell” doesn’t result in anything other than the button changing color briefly. No terminal comes up.
I just tried deactivating my caching and security plugins before exporting. No change in behavior. I looked at the browser’s console (F12) and there are no errors.
I added “wp-admin” to the end of the URL hoping I could log into my control panel, and I got this screen:
Note that when I first launch the site, it doesn’t complain about SSL, and I was able to get MacOS to trust the local certificate by going into the Keychains app.
Oh, I was able to open the dashboard on my imported site (learnwithmikemossey.local) … I was dong it wrong. Apparently I needed to click the “WP Admin” button. It showed all the plugins missing (see screenshot below).
Regarding your test of manual import, I’m stuck on the step to open the Site Shell. I click on the Site Shell button and nothing happens other than the button changes color briefly.
I tried it on Windows (actually running on Parallels on my MacBook) and got exactly the same result. I can open the admin page, and it shows no plugins are present. I’m going to try the manual import when I get a chance, maybe tomorrow.
EDIT: what was good about Windows was that I got the Site Shell to work. So I can follow the directions for the manual import.
However it would be much better to work on MacOS directly if I could get Site Shell to work.
By the way I purchased the Standard Version of WP Migrate Pro and have been using that for the last few tests.
So on MacOS you were able to get the site imported and into the dashboard, but all of the plugins were missing? Could you share a screenshot of what happens when you try to use Site Shell?
On Windows you were able to do the manual import and did everything work normally after that or did you still have trouble?
For your MacOS machine, can you sure a full copy of your Local Log with us? There are some different ways to access and share Local Logs. For us to be able to troubleshoot thoroughly, please click the Download Local Logs button from the Support tab in Local. This will generate a zip archive that contains the Local log along with some other diagnostic information to help quickly zero in on any issues that Local is encountering.
I couldn’t do the manual import on Windows (Parallels on ARM) because I couldn’t get Local to create a new site. It said it was missing the C++ 2015-2019 dependency.
There’s no screenshot to share about launching Site Shell. Nothing visible happens except the button changes color briefly to show it was clicked. I discovered later that it was launching Terminal, but Terminal stayed hidden for some reason, and there were no new windows with a shell of any sort.
I have a Windows 11 setup on Parallels as well and I get the missing the C++ 2015-2019 dependency but I’m still able to just click through it and proceed. Is that an option on your setup?
Rewinding back a bit I just wanted to check on MacOS and/or Windows are you able to create a new, blank site in Local and access the front and back ends okay? Just want to make sure nothing is wrong with the basic configuration and it’s specific to this site/import.
I did get a new site working on MacOS and accessed the dashboard and viewed the front page.
On Windows/Parallels/ARM, I did click through the missing C++ 2015-2019 warning but it popped up again when I tried to create a site. Also this popped up at one point:
I haven’t run into any issues on my Parallels setup but we do have some Windows specific performance items mentioned in our guide here:
I would also check to make sure you’re running the application as an admin and it has permission to edit the hosts file, etc. Windows setups tend to be a bit more restrictive with Local starting out.
Oh I got the new site working on Windows. The error was because I hadn’t started the site yet. It took something like 10 minutes to create the site and start it. I’ll try following the directions for manual import now.
EDIT: okay started the manual import on Windows. Got stuck here (apparently sql server isn’t running or is at unexpected port or something):
EDIT #2: I tried running Local as admin and I only tried one thing, starting the site, but it happened in seconds. Maybe that was the problem, but would have to try other things to be sure.
Circling back with you here so we can share some of the solutions and information publicly in case other users need.
You said
I discovered that if I don’t export the WP core files, it works!
This is sometimes a blocker when importing or migrating a site. Since Local is going to spin up new core files for you, trying to import modified ones can confuse and break the import. That’s why I was probably successful importing your site when I removed everything except WP-Content and the DB.
Also does Local have way to send mail?
Yep! Local has a built in mail application called Mailpit you can use for testing forms, resetting a password, etc.
