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Symptom

You have a Wordpress website and want to copy the complete websites from one domain into another. All content shall be preserved, only the domain name shall be changed. You already tried to copy database and files into a new domain, but your Wordpress website is inaccessible or does not display the correct design.

Cause

When moving a complete Wordpress website from one domain into another you do not only need to copy files and database to the new domain. You must also update the wp-config.php configuration file and you must change all links from the old domain name in the database to the new domain. If you omit these steps, the website remains white (empty, due to errors) or stylesheets and images will not be loaded which leads to a wrong website design.

Wordpress stores many links to the domain name in ist database. Some of these entries are serialized data, e.g. before the content the length of the character string is stored. These data can only be interpreted if the length given matches the factural length of the following string. For that reason it is costly to update the old domain name by a new one, if you do this manually.

Solution

Use the free “Duplicator” Wordpress plugin by von Snap Creek. With Duplicator you can pack your complete Wordpress website including files and atabase into a single archive file. Copy this file into your new webspace (your new domain). Add a setup sript that Duplicator provides. This will let you unpack the archive into your new domain comfortably. Duplicator updates all paths and domain links to your new domain name.

Overview of frequently asked questions