Sync between staging and production sites

This guide explains how to transfer changes between your staging and live (production) sites. In this guide, you will learn how to sync changes between staging and production and important considerations for doing so.

To ensure your staging site reflects the latest version of your live site, you can sync production to staging. This is especially useful before testing updates to themes, plugins, or content. 

To refresh your staging site with a clean copy of the production site, follow these steps:

1. Visit your Sites list.
2. Click the staging site title in the list of your sites.
3. Click the Sync button in the top right of the screen and select the “Pull from Production” option in the dropdown.

4. A modal will open where you can choose what to pull.

5. Choose to sync “All files and folders” or “Specific files and folders,” then use the checkboxes to select what you want to include.
6. Decide whether to include the “Database tables” in the sync. See the guide below for more information.
7. Click Pull, and the process will begin. You’ll receive an email once the sync is complete.

When you’re ready to move your changes from the staging site to your live site, you can sync media files, plugins, themes, and database content—including posts, pages, and menus. 

Follow the steps below to copy your staging site back to your production (live) site:

1. Visit your Sites list in the dashboard.
2. Click the staging site in the list.
3. Click the Sync button in the top right of the screen and select the “Push to Production” option in the dropdown.

4. A modal will open where you can choose what to push.

5. Choose to sync “All files and folders” or “Specific files and folders,” then use the checkboxes to select what you want to include.
6. Decide whether to include the “Database tables” in the sync. See the guide below for more information.
7. When syncing from staging to production, confirm the sync by entering your site’s URL when prompted.

8. Click Push, and the process will begin. You’ll receive an email once the sync is complete.

Syncing the database from staging to production ensures the content you changed or added to your staging site appears on your production site.

To fully reflect changes made on your staging site to production (or vice versa), you must include “Database tables” when syncing. This is essential for updates involving:

• Posts, pages, and custom post types
• Media uploads in the Media Library
• Site template or Styles edits made in the Site Editor
• Plugin and theme activation or deactivation
• Any other content stored in the database

The database syncs as a whole—you cannot select individual posts or pages to sync. If you need to transfer only specific content, consider using the Export and Import tools instead.

If you’re syncing media uploads and want them to appear in the WordPress Media Library, the database must also be included in the sync.

When you sync the database, staging database content overwrites matching production database content. This includes posts, pages, settings, and other stored data. Any content added to production after your last sync from production to staging will be replaced.

Syncing files (plugins, themes, uploads) will add new files and update modified files on the destination site.

For websites with WooCommerce and other e-commerce plugins, syncing the database can result in permanent data loss. For example, if a new order is placed on your production site after you’ve created a staging copy, syncing the staging database back to production will erase that order.

Any data added to the production site after the last sync (from production to staging) will be overwritten, including:

• Orders
• Product changes
• Customer information

If you have WooCommerce installed, an additional warning appears when syncing from staging to production.

It’s generally safe to sync the database if:

• The site is still in development and hasn’t launched
• The production store isn’t accepting real orders
• You’re testing on staging, and there’s no risk of overwriting real data
• Orders are disabled on production, and the database was synced to staging before changes were made
• You’ve successfully exported the latest store data from production, imported it to staging, and confirmed that the data matches on both sites.

Payment gateway configurations on your staging site, such as test accounts or sandbox settings, will not overwrite your production payment settings when syncing. You can leave payments unconfigured or use test mode on staging without affecting live payment processing.

If data loss occurs after syncing, you can restore your site using a production backup.