Migration from sandbox to production site
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In preparation of a major design change on our site quantumsf.org we created a private site newquantumsf.org as a sandbox environment to create and fine-tune a new look with a premium theme and a lot of new static pages and menus (no blog content changes). Now we want to move this new content to production the quantumsf.org domain (and WordPress.com account). How can we take the theme, configuration, and static pages from the sandbox site and move them to the production site without impacting the blog content, comments, etc.? Also, can the premium theme and premium packages we bought on the sandbox site account be transferred to the production site account? We’re a non-profit so budgets are tight.
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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Hi there,
I can help you move the theme from newquantumsf.wordpress.com to quantumsf.org. However, I see that site already has a Premium Plan, owned by the username, amyredbelt, so I cannot move the Premium Plan on the test site. The test site’s plan is also too old to still refund at this point, but I can cancel it and renew the plan owned by amyredbelt for you. I will need amyredbelt to post here to also confirm that’s okay if you want to do that.
Your content (posts, pages, media files, comments) you need to move via our Export-Import functionality. You’ll find those options under My Site ->Settings
However, this will ONLY migrate your site content. Customizations and settings cannot be migrated, so you’ll need to redo those manually on the new site.
So I’d suggest these steps:
1) Export your content from the private site and import to the main site.
2) Copy any custom CSS you’ve added on the test site into a .txt file using Textedit/Notepad. Also make a note of all the other customisations and settings you’re configured on the test site.
3) Let me know so I can transfer the theme and renew the plan for you.
4) Once I’ve transferred the theme, add your custom CSS back on the main site, and set up all the other configurations you’ve made there.
Or, the simpler option, I can move your domain over to the test site so it becomes the live site instead. I can also move over your stats and followers to that site, and you can invite the current admins on the live site to the test site.
To move the domain over to the other site I will need the permission of the user who owns it, amyredbelt, so I’ll need that person to comment here to confirm if you choose to do this instead.
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Hi Kokkieh,
The simple option of switching the custom domain to the private site sounds great but there is one issue: when I created the private site by export/importing from the production site, all the blog posts created by ‘Master Evans’ were marked as created by ‘quantumsf’ instead. Do you have a way to restore the poster’s identity on the private site (and port the likes)?
Otherwise we’ll have to go the complicated route and I may have more questions to make sure the export/import doesn’t overwrite the blog posts on the production site.
Please let me know either way and I’ll get amyredbelt to authorize the change.
By the way, thanks a lot for your support on Christmas Day. I didn’t expect such a fast response during the Holidays, and I really appreciate it because we’d like to make the switch soon during this low-traffic period before the activity picks up in the next few days.
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when I created the private site by export/importing from the production site, all the blog posts created by ‘Master Evans’ were marked as created by ‘quantumsf’ instead.
You’ll need to delete those posts from the test site, add Master Evans’s username as a user on the site, and then import the posts again, attributing them to that user. Or you can bulk-edit the posts from the WP-Admin dashboard to assign a new author, after adding that user to the site.
I may have more questions to make sure the export/import doesn’t overwrite the blog posts on the production site.
If the content on the test site is the same as the content on the main site there is no need to export/import to the main site at all, but the importer also won’t import any content that’s already on the target site – it doesn’t duplicate content if it detects a post with the same title and permalink there already. So if there’s new content on the test site, only the new content will be imported when you import to the main site.
By far the bigger job will be the menus, customizations, etc. which needs to be moved over manually.
It’s my pleasure to help :)
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Thanks again. I deleted the posts and re-imported them after creating the Master Evans account. It looks good except the likes, which are not displayed on the newquantumsf site. Can you please make sure that these are ported?
Let’s proceed with the ‘easy’ migration plan: simply switch the ‘quantumsf.org’ domain mapping from the quantumsf site to the newquantumsf site. I made sure that the newquantumsf site is no longer private. Search engine indexing is off but I will turn it on after the domain is mapped. Please make sure that our domain mapping subscription continues on the newquantumsf site until December 2017.
I understand that amyredbelt needs to approve this. She will reply to this thread soon and confirm.
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It looks good except the likes, which are not displayed on the newquantumsf site. Can you please make sure that these are ported?
Likes are not included in the export file, but if I merge your stats between the two sites those might be moved over as well. I’m not entirely sure, though.
simply switch the ‘quantumsf.org’ domain mapping from the quantumsf site to the newquantumsf site.
I will need the user who owns the Premium Plan and domain on that site, amyredbelt, to approve this switch. If you don’t want to add that user as an admin on your site, she’ll also need to confirm that I can transfer the upgrades to your username, which will make you the owner and responsible for renewing them in future.
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I authorize the migration of the quantumsf.org domain mapping subscription from the quantumsf site to the newquantumsf site – Amy Popovich
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Everything should be ready so please switch the domain as soon as possible. Amyredbelt is now an admin on the newquantumsf site and will be the owner responsible for renewing the upgrades in the future.
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Thank you for confirming. I have moved the domain over to the new site.
Amyredbelt is now an admin on the newquantumsf site and will be the owner responsible for renewing the upgrades in the future.
So should I transfer the Premium Plan on the new site that belongs to quantumsf to amyredbelt as well? Then the original Premium Plan on the older site will expire next week.
Lastly, please confirm if I should move the stats and followers from the one site to the other for you.
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Thank you for confirming.
I’ve transferred the Premium Plan to the amyredbelt account and linked the domain to the plan. That user will just need to add payment details to the plan on the Purchases page to re-enable automatic renewal.
I’ve also transferred your followers and stats, so everything should be back the way it was on the old site, except for the new design.
Let me know if there’s anything else.
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Perfect. Thank you. I noticed that Google still has some of the old site cached. Is there a way to force a refresh and make them re-crawl the site? I can’t use the ‘Fetch as Google’ tool because it asks me to upload a file on the domain and I don’t think this is allowed by WordPress.com (unless you can tell me how). Same question for Bing and the other major search engines.
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You can verify the site with Google Search Console, using one of the alternative methods. We support the meta tag and DNS record option.
Giving Google a re-crawl command in Search Console might help, but if it doesn’t the only other option is to wait for Google’s cache to update on its own. If you publish new posts that might speed up the process, as with each new post we ping search engines to index your site, but not much you can do besides that :)
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