How to clone a wordpress website easy using duplicator plugin. Step by step guide

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Hello and welcome to the channel. So you wanted to copy an existing website and put that in another server or probably on the same server but on another domain. For the reason of maybe starting from there, because you really like the formatting of your existing website. Building a new website based on that existing website will speed up your website creation process. For that purpose let me guide you on how to accomplish that.

Using Duplicator Plugin

The first thing to do is make sure that the duplicator is installed and activated. Just go to dashboard, head over on the duplicator.

1. Creating the package

Then create a package. Right there you got a couple of options. If you want to exclude a couple of other directory within your sever, you can do it there. Also if you want to exclude some files, some sort of backup. Living that empty could also be good as long as it is not that massive. And the server will not take much time creating the entire package. Then you gonna hit Next.

You can see the duplicator will scan the file. I believe duplicator can process as much as 2 gig. So don’t worry much about the file size.

2. Build the website duplicate

Then you have to click Build process button right there. That’s done!

3.Download files

All you need to do is download the Installer file and then the Archive file. Now that you have the files downloaded, you got two files the installer and the zip file.

Migration Process

Create new database on cPanel

Add user privilegeAdd new user on the database

  1. Login to your cPanel. (The url would be yourwebsite.com/cPanel )
  2. From the cPanel head over on the MySQL Databases.
  3. Create a database (Copy the created database name.) Hit go back.
  4. Create a user (Hit the password generator, copy the generated password) Hit go back.
  5. Add a user privilege. Scroll down below and select the one that were created, the user and the database as well. Click add and then select all privileges then hit Make Changes.
  6. Head back on the cPanelhome.

Installation Process

Prepare files for installation

Now you go to the  file manager, depending on what type of installation you want. It can probably be the main website or an add-on website or a sub directory website. Really depends upon on your situation. But on my end, I’m gonna utilize the sub directory. I got the xhlegal sub directory open right now. I’m gonna install this on the sub directory. I’m just gonna make sure that it is empty. I used to have a website right there, so I’m just gonna delete everything right there. So that is the sub directory and currently empty.

Yours probably has some sort of other files. But that is just a system file don’t worry about it. You don’t have to empty that, but if that is another file that really doesn’t mean anything on your end. So go ahead and clean up the directory.

Upload files

Now we’re gonna upload the two files, the zip file and then the installer.php. Just select and upload the file one by one. All we need to do now is wait for the upload to finish. Hit the reload once the upload is done. We should be able to see two files right there.

Install files

The next thing we need to do is head over on the url itself, the url of the website. It should display the two files. If on your case it will not display the file due to some security issues, then all you need to do is append the url with installer.php. (yourwebsite.com/installer.php) then click enter.

We will now be greeted by the duplicator installer files. Just agree and hit next then it will run the deployment process.

The next thing will be to supply all the necessary information. I’m gonna paste the database name and then the user will be the same, paste the password. And then we test the database. We should see the green thing on the response and hit next and yes. Okay now the duplicator will update the data base data exchanging all the links from the previous website down to the new website. I’m just gonna hit next. Normally the original value or the normal value should be there automatically.You can see there install notices, no errors, update notice no errors as well.

Post Installation Routine

Next is we need to do some post installation routine. The first thing is heading to the website and logging in. Your username and password would be the same as the original website. It says this site has been successfully migrated. And then remove the installation files and all the other necessary files that were being used during the migration. Okay it says that the files are now removed. Next thing is to head over on the settings then on the permalinks. We need to update the permalinks and save changes. Now let’s visit the website. Looks like it was transferred without any problem. You can see the new website. The original website looks like the same. You can open it to see that they look similar, the clone website and the original website. They should be pretty much identical.

I hope that helps. If you got any questions during the migration and installation of the duplicator files just let me know on the comments below. Okay! Don’t forget to keep the files that you have downloaded from the duplicator. Because that will also serve as your main backup file just in case your original website got any issues on the future. Thanks!

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