How to Copy a WordPress Site Without Access

What Happens When We Have to Migrate a Site We Do Not Own?

1. The client Doesn’t have the Information.

You know it’s difficult to move a WordPress site without the proper access information?

It happens when an employee leaves a company and cannot be reached for various reasons. They may have set up a hosting account in their name or tied it to their identity.

This can also happen when a business has gone out of operation or used a freelancer who is no longer around.

1. The client doesn’t understand what we are asking for

It is our job to talk nerdy about MySQL, phpMyAdmin SFTP, SSH, etc., and not theirs. Some clients may not be able to access this Information because a control panel such as cPanel does not exist or they do have access.

1. The previous host or developer will not give us access.

Now, we’re not here to rip off other developers. We advise our clients that if access is denied because of bills due, etc., we should settle the bill.

We have seen situations where the relationship has turned toxic, and the person or shop holding the “keys” is not responsive or supportive of our client’s attempts to migrate the site.

It is by far the most frustrating reason and, sadly, the reason that we are forced to migrate WordPress sites without FTP access or MySQL.

How Can I Copy A WordPress Website Without Accessing It?

You can now access the WordPress Dashboard.

We need at least administrator access to WordPress’ backend. This is necessary because we will be using plugins to migrate your site.

Migrating to a new site without file, database, and administrator access would be hacking. This article would then be entitled “How To Copy A WordPress Site Without ANY ACCESS.”

We will need full admin access to install plugins.

Use Backup Plugins

Backup plugins are an excellent way to make a backup of the entire website (databases and files). You can choose whether to transfer the files to Dropbox or download them immediately.

There are always a few catchy things. The server needs to have sufficient resources to handle backups. These backups are mainly a storage issue and can be quite large depending on how big the site is and what else the hosting account has.

Some backup plugins let you exclude certain files from the backup. This may include other backups, logs, and zip files.

Another problem I’ve encountered is missing or timed-out server modules. If the backup fails initially, try it again. You can also try a different setting, such as switching compression on or off.

Here are some backup plugins I use. Another plugin might be able to work if one fails.

• UpdraftPlus
• Duplicator Plugin
• VaultPress Jetpack Backup
• BackWPup

BackWPup

BackWPup is my favorite.

It is a free tool that is a fantastic backup. You can back up files and databases easily to a local folder for download, Amazon S3, Rackspace Cloud, or DropBox.

This will create a zip file containing all the files of your site and a SQL database. You can then use this to restore your site on a different server. This plugin will work in most standard WordPress hosting environments.

Duplicator

It’s an old favorite, but it causes more conflicts than BackWPup. This one is nice because if you run it successfully, then all you have to do is upload the Duplicator package on the new host computer and run the Duplicator Installer.

This installer makes the life of a new host easier. The backup files will be included in the package if the installer fails. You can then install the files manually and the MySQL database.

Use a migration plugin.

For the past 2 or 3 years, this has been my preferred method of migrating sites to new hosting environments when I don’t have access to FTP and MySQL.

It is necessary to install a new instance of WordPress and set up a new web host.

After you have administrator rights to both websites, you can install a plugin that will allow you to migrate the data between the two sites. You then go through the setup process, where you enter all the details about the site you wish to move, the content you want to transfer, and finally click on the go.

These WordPress plugins are great because they can handle the serialized search and replace it where necessary.

Many hosts have their plugins and solutions. The two I use and see most often are the ones below.

WP Migrate

Note: On June 20,22, it was announced that WP Engine had acquired Delicious Brains plugins, including WP Migrate. I never like to see big players in the industry snatching up tools as I worry about their maintenance. As of the date of this article, WP Migrate was still a viable option. However, we will need to monitor it.

My favorite is WP Migrate from Delicious Brains. (I can’t help but love the name). It is a paid plugin, though there is also a version available. It can’t migrate your entire site.

You can connect two WordPress instances with WP Migrate and migrate themes and plugins as well as media and the database. It is magic when it works.

There are some catches here. It may take a while, depending on how big the site is that you’re migrating. I’ve seen systems time out only to restart and then be successful.

This method has also crashed a server for me. I don’t know what resources were on the server of the migrated website, but it’s possible that the site could hit a server with low resources.

In this case, I was able to convince the host to restart the service, and we finally got it to work.

WP Migrate lets you change the server settings to find the best balance between data transfer size and pauses.

This plugin can be used to migrate multisite networks, but it is a bit tricky, especially for large setups. It’s easy to install, activate, set up, and migrate on smaller sites.