Are you looking to create a staging site for WordPress but not sure where to start?
A WordPress staging site is a test site that you can use to “safely” make plugin updates and other changes before going live.
In the past, it used to be very difficult to setup a WordPress staging site, but now that has changed so even a non-technical person can do it.
In this step by step guide, we will show you how to easily create a staging environment for your WordPress site. We will cover several different methods and most of them only require a few clicks.
What is a Staging Site?
A staging site is a clone of your live website that is used for testing changes before making them live. Staging sites help you catch errors, so you don’t end up breaking your live website.
A lot of users install WordPress locally on their Windows or Mac computers to test changes. Once they’re done with the updates, they simply upload those changes from localhost to live server
The biggest problem with this approach is what if something that worked on your localhost does not work on the live server?
Often localhost and live WordPress hosting servers are not running the same environment.
Since the staging site lives on your web hosting server, you can easily prevent all those errors because it runs the same server configuration as your live site.
With that said, let’s take a look at how to setup a staging site for WordPress.
How to Easily Create a WordPress Staging Site
There are multiple ways to create a staging site for WordPress. The easiest of them is to use your hosting provider’s built-in staging site feature.
Some of the best WordPress hosting companies already offer 1-click staging websites. If your website is hosted with one of them, then you can easily create a staging site without any hassle.
If you’re not with one of these popular hosting solutions, then we also have a solution to help you create a WordPress staging site using a plugin (and even manually).
For faster browsing, you can use the navigation below to jump to the section that’s most applicable to you:
- Creating a staging site on Bluehost
- Creating a staging site on SiteGround
- Creating a staging site on WP Engine
- Creating a staging site using a plugin
- Creating a staging site manually
Creating A Staging Site on Bluehost
Bluehost is one of the best WordPress hosting companies. They offer a quick 1-click staging site solution which comes with all their plans.
First, you need to login to your WordPress site’s admin area and go to Bluehost » Staging page.
This will bring you to the Bluehost’s staging site wizard. Next, you need to click on the ‘Create Staging Site’ button to continue.
Bluehost will now prepare the staging environment for your website. Once finished, you will see a success message with a link to visit your staging site.
Now, you can click on the ‘Go to staging site’ button to continue.
You will reach the admin area of your staging WordPress site. You will see a red button on top of the admin bar to indicate that you are working in the staging environment.
You can go ahead and work on your website without worrying about it affecting your live site.
Deploying changes from staging to live site on Bluehost
Once you are ready to push changes from staging to the live site, simply go to Bluehost » Staging page.
Scroll to the Deployment Options section. You will see three options for deployment. You can deploy only the files, only the database, or both files and database.
If you’re not sure, then click on the Deploy Files and Database button to deploy all changes from the staging environment.
This will bring up a popup where you will be asked to confirm that you want to deploy the staging site to the production site. Click on ‘Yes, Let’s Deploy’ button to continue.
Bluehost will now start deploying your staging site to the live site. Depending on the size of your website, this may take a while.
The pop up will automatically disappear when deployment is over. You can now visit your live website to see the changes applied to your production site.
Creating a Staging Site on SiteGround
SiteGround is another top WordPress hosting company offering 1-click staging feature with their GrowBig and GoGeek plans. If your website is hosted with SiteGround, then this is how you would set up a staging website.
First, you need to login to your SiteGround cPanel dashboard. Next, scroll down to the ‘WordPress Tools’ section and then click on the Staging icon.
This will bring you to the staging sites page. From here, you need to add your website to the staging site manager. Once you’re done, click on the ‘Add WordPress’ button to continue.
On the next screen, you need to select the URL where your website is installed. If your WordPress site is installed in a sub-directory, then you can add that in the field next to it and click on the Add URL button to move forward.
The staging site manager will detect your website and add it to the page. You can now click on the ‘Create Staging Copy’ button to continue.
You will see a popup that allows you to password protect your staging site. This is a good idea because it prevents others from accessing your site. It also prevents Google from indexing duplicate content.
Go ahead and provide a username / password and then click ‘Continue’.
SiteGround will now create the staging environment for your WordPress website.
Once it’s done, you will see the staging site manager with links to the admin area of your staging site. Go ahead and start working on your WordPress staging site.
After you are done making changes to your website, you can push it live by going to the staging page in cPanel. You need to click on the ‘Manage Staging Copies’ button next to your website.
On the next page, you can click on the ‘Push to live’ button to push changes from staging to your live website.
Creating a Staging Site on WP Engine
WP Engine is the best WordPress managed hosting company in the world. Managed WordPress hosting is a concierge service for your WordPress site where the hosting provider takes care of updates, backups, security and performance.
WP Engine offers one-click staging solution with all their plans. If you are using WP Engine to host your website, then this is how you would set up a staging environment for your site.
First, you need to login to your WP Engine dashboard. Next, go to the Sites page and select your website by clicking on it.
This will bring you to your website dashboard. Now, you need to click on the Add Staging link from the left column.
On the next screen, you need to enter a name for your staging site under the ‘Create New’ tab. This name will also be the subdomain of your staging site.
Click on the Create Environment button to continue.
WP Engine will now create a staging site for you. However, this staging environment is just an empty WordPress site that does not have any content of your live website.
Let’s change this.
Switch to your production environment by clicking on production from the left column. On the next screen, click on the Copy to button at the top right corner of the screen.
Next, you will be asked to select the backup point you want to use for your staging site. If unsure, select the most recent back up of your website.
Click on the preview copy button to continue.
You will see a warning popup informing you that you are copying the source website to the staging environment. Click on the Copy Environment button to proceed.
WP Engine will now copy your live website to the staging environment. You will recieve an email notification when it is done.
After that, you can login to your staging website using the same admin username and password as your live website.
Deploying Staging to Live Website on WP Engine
When you are ready to push the changes from your WordPress staging site to live site, first you will need to create a backup point for your staging site.
A backup point is just like saving your progress in a game. You need to create one before deploying your staging site’s changes to the live site.
Simply head over to WP Engine dashboard and click on Staging » Backup Points menu from the left column.
Next, provide a description for your backup so you can remember the changes later, and then click on ‘Create staging backup’ button.
WP Engine will now create a backup point for your website. You will receive an email notification when your backup is complete.
You are now ready to deploy your staging site.
Simply click on the ‘Copy to’ button at the top right corner of the screen and select ‘Production’.
Next, you will be asked to select a backup point. This time select the backup you created earlier and click on the preview button.
You will see a warning message, but go ahead and click on the ‘Copy Environment’ button to proceed.
WP Engine will now copy your staging environment to your live website. You will recieve an email notification when it is complete.
After that, you can log in to your live website to ensure everything is working fine, and it should because you tested all your changes on staging.
Creating A Staging Site using WordPress Plugin
If your WordPress hosting company does not provide a staging site feature, then you can still create a staging website using a WordPress plugin.
There are some disadvantages to using this method.
First, a plugin would have limited control on your hosting server. This is why it may not always give the best results.
Secondly, the plugin we will be using will store your staging site on their own servers. If you are concerned about privacy and data protection, then this may not be the ideal situation for you.
That being said, let’s see how to create a staging WordPress site using a WordPress plugin.
The first thing that you need to do is install and activate the WP Stagecoach plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Upon activation, the plugin will add a new menu item labeled WP Stagecoach to your admin bar. Clicking on it will take you to plugin’s settings page.
You will need to enter your WP Stagecoach username and the API key which you can find under your account on the plugin website.
After that, you will be able to create your staging website.
You need to provide a name for your staging site. This name will also be used as the subdomain of your WordPress staging website.
Don’t forget to check the box next to ‘Password protect the staging site’ option. It will protect your staging website from public view and search engines.
Next, click on the ‘Ride The Stagecoach’ button to continue.
The plugin will now create a backup of your WordPress files and database to export them for your staging site. Once finished, you will see the link to your staging site, and its admin area.
You can click the link to visit your staging site and start working on it.
Deploying Staging Site to Live Using WP Stagecoach
Once you are ready to import changes to your live site, head over to WP Stagecoach » Import Changes page and click on the check for changes button.
The plugin will now check for changes on your staging site and then show you options to import them.
You can select to import only file changes, only database changes, or all changes. Next, click on the import button to continue.
The plugin will show you the progress of the import and will notify you when it is done. You can now test your live site to see if all changes were successfully imported.
Create a Staging Site for WordPress Manually
This method requires you to manually create a staging site for your WordPress install. It is for advanced users and requires more work than other methods described above.
Another disadvantage of this method is that your website will be temporarily unavailable when deploying changes back from staging to live server.
That being said, let’s see how to manually create a staging environment for your WordPress site.
First, you need to create a subdomain for your staging website. Go to your hosting account’s dashboard and click on the Subdomains link located under the domains section.
Note: We’re using Bluehost in our example screenshot, so your screen may look different.
Provide a name for your subdomain (for example, staging) and then click on the create button.
Your hosting control panel will now add your subdomain, which you can use to import your live WordPress site.
Next, you need to install and activate the Duplicator plugin on your live site.
Upon activation, you need to click on the Duplicator menu in your WordPress admin sidebar and click on the create new button.
After that, you will be asked to click on the Next button to continue.
Duplicator will now run the website duplicator wizard. First, it will run some tests to see if everything is in order. If all items are marked ‘Good’, then click on the ‘Build’ button.
The plugin will now start creating a duplicator package of your WordPress site. This process may take a few minutes depending on the size of your website.
Once finished, you’ll see download options for Installer and the Archive package. You need to click on the ‘One click download’ link to download both files on your computer.
Your new staging WordPress site will need a new database. Let’s create one.
Head over to your WordPress hosting account’s control panel and click on MySQL Databases icon located under the Databases section.
On the next screen, provide a name for your database and then click on the create database button.
Next, you need to create a MySQL user for your database. Scroll down to the MySQL Users section and provide a username and password for your new database user.
Now you need to give this user permissions to access and modify the database you created earlier. Simply scroll down to the ‘Add user to database’ section and select your database and the user you just created.
After that, click on the ‘Add’ button to continue.
You will be asked to select privileges for the user. Go ahead and select ‘All Privileges’ checkbox and then click on the ‘Make changes’ button.
Now your database is ready to be used for your staging website.
Next, you need to open a new browser tab and visit enter the subdomain of your staging site like this:
https://yoursubdomain.example.com/installer.php
Don’t forget to replace yoursubdomain with the actual subdomain and example.com with your own domain name.
This will launch the Duplicator installer wizard.
The installer will look for the archive file. You need to check the terms and conditions checkbox and click on the next button to continue.
Now, the installer will ask you to enter your WordPress database information.
Your host will likely be localhost. After that, you will enter the details of the database you created for your new domain name in the earlier step.
Once done, click on the next button to continue.
Duplicator will now unpack your WordPress database backup from the archive into your new database.
Next, it will ask you to update the site URL or Path. You shouldn’t have to change anything since it automatically detects the URL of your new subdomain and its path.
If it doesn’t, then you can change the URL to your new subdomain. After that, click on the next button to continue.
Duplicator will now finish the migration.
You can click on the ‘Admin Login’ button to enter the WordPress admin area of your website on the new staging site.
Now you have your staging site set up. Let’s protect it by adding password protection to your subdomain.
Head over to your hosting account’s cPanel dashboard and click on the directory privacy icon.
Next, you need to select your subdomain folder and then select the option to ‘password protect this directory’ checkbox. You will be asked to provide a name for this setting, and then enter a username and password.
Click on the save button to store your settings. Your staging site will now be hidden behind the password protection.
You can now work on your staging site and make any changes you want.
Manually Deploy Staging Site to Live
After you are ready to deploy changes from your staging site to the live server, you will follow the same steps described above.
Simply create a new Duplicator package on your staging site and download the Installer and Archive files to your computer.
Next, you need to head over to your live site and create a complete WordPress backup (you can use Duplicator to create a complete backup as well).
Once you are done, you will need to delete all WordPress files and folders from your live website. This means your WordPress site will be down for a while.
Finally, follow the instructions above to run the Duplicator installer wizard to import staging site to live server.
As you can see, the last method is not the best method at all. You should avoid this at all costs. We recommend using a reliable hosting provider like Bluehost, SiteGround, or WP Engine that offers built-in staging site features.
We hope this article helped you learn how to easily create a staging environment for your WordPress site. If you run into any issues, check out our ultimate guide to fixing the most common WordPress errors.
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If I download WAMP on my computer and use the localhost, couldn’t install the UpdraftPlus plugin and let that be my staging site? Isn’t this another alternative?
Rather than UpdraftPlus, we would recommend taking a look at our guide here for using local for staging: https://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-move-wordpress-from-local-server-to-live-site/
I’m trying to set up a staging environment on my WordPress site hosted by Bluehost. I’m stopped at step one! when I go to the WordPress admin area, I don’t see bluehost at the top of the page. The topmost option in the nav menu on the left is “Dashboard”. No sign of “Staging” anywhere. Help?
You likely removed the BlueHost plugin, if you reach out to BlueHost’s support they should be able to let you know their current methods available
Hello
I tried but did not succeed. Getting error ” this site can’t be reached”.
I am on Godaddy and using Cloudflare. And I have not created a separate FTP account.
To start troubleshooting that you could try the steps in our article here: https://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-fix-the-403-forbidden-error-in-wordpress/
or reach out to your hosting provider for them to take a look.
thank you for the article. one question: If I update WordPress ONLY on the staging site, will it affect also my live-site?
thank you for your answer. regards, s.
No, if you update one site it should not affect the other.
Thank you for this article.
Do you know of a way to test membership (loginlogoff ) functionality without going live on the actual site. In the staging environment or developing. TIA
You would likely need to create a test user for you to log in with to test that.
Great article, with one step missing for the manual instructions.
After downloading the duplicator files to your computer, you then have to upload the installer file and archive file to your newly created subdomain directory.
Otherwise when you try to run the installer you get a 404 page.
Otherwise great guide!
Thanks….
Thank you for pointing that out
No option to try the staging feature on Bluehost yet. Message says “Please contact support to find out how to enable staging.” I was just on the phone with Bluehost about another issue and the rep I was speaking with never heard of this new feature.
It would depend on what rep you were talking to as it is a new feature so not all reps may be knowledgeable yet
To be able to use the staging feature provided by Bluehost, you must install and activate the Blushost plugin.
Thank you for this great info, as always. Now is this something I could use to play around with a new page builder? I want to test out Thrive Architect but want to do so without messing anything up. Or, suppose I wanted to play around with a new theme. These may be 2 different questions.
You could certainly test those changes with a staging environment without having to worry about what people see on the site.
Thanks for the info. I currently use Bluehost but don’t have the staging site option I would love to test it out for a new theme I’d like to try before purchasing it. I contacted BH tech support the rep told me the feature is in development. Thanks again for the info.
Glad we could bring this feature to your attention even if it is currently being developed
I was able to access the feature today. I’m excited to use it. Thanks again for the info. I’m excited to try out the staging feature.
this is a great information, I have two websites, but I don’t feel like having both look the same.
pls, I need help.
is there any code I can add on >dashboard >customize >additional css,,, for the font color of my site to be pure black in color..
I have this theme that I am using, it gives me everything I want. but the font color of my blog posts are light black. I will like to change the color to pure black
any solution?
thank you.
For finding the CSS you need to change, you would want to take a look at our article on how to use inspect element here: https://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/basics-of-inspect-element-with-your-wordpress-site/
Great article but the push back to live is a little brief. I have a WooCommerce site that needs a theme change. I used Duplicator Pro to make a copy on a staging server. I’ve made all the changes to the site including adding a couple of new plugins.
Now I want to push the site back but I can’t do the same thing as there are new orders on the live site. How do I copy the site back without affecting the orders etc..?
Sadly, the safest method for that would be to prevent orders while updating from staging.
I haven’t read the comments yet, but I’ve been at this all day. The reason why is because this page does not tell you how to create a database user and assign privileges to the said user.
Thankfully, I was able to figure it out, but that’s a KEY step that is missing to connect the site and database.
Apologies about the confusion, we will certainly look into clarifying that. If you reach out to your hosting provider they normally have a user already created.
Hi guys,
Thanks for your awesome post. I like the idea that the provider has the staging, productive and a test environment out of box.
But I have two questions:
1. Can write a little bit how it works by your suggested providers?
2. Have you also providers which are located in the EU or better in Germany? And offer staging environment out of box?
Kind regard
Thank you so much for this information! And if anyone’s wondering, yes, it’s still relevant 4.5 years later.
Hi there
I am in the process of setting up a new WordPress site but I was planning to start building everything in my staging environment because I would like my live site to have a “under construction” landing page.
What I am not sure of is how to push my changes from the staging site to my live site when I am ready. Would you mind describing this process please?
Thank you
Jess
If it’s simply a matter of wanting a “Under Construction” page while keeping the rest of the sight off limits to the public, there are plugins that will do that. Search “under construction.”
How does this process compare to using a plugin like wp-staging.
Hi, my question is, i created a staging environment, work there make some updates on structure of pages, layouts, new categories, new pluig-in.
Ok, but in real live, my site is growing with new posts, comments, images, videos, etc…
When i push stage back to life, i will lost thes new itens that were create in real live ??? I test this in sitegroud, and i loose ever with advanved “push to live”
tks
Hi Fernando,
The solution described above only syncs your website files not the database.
Hi,
Thank you very much. This article was very helpful.
Hi, thanks for such a useful article,
I’m having a small issue when I give it a go,
I have got as far down as
“Once WordPress has connected to your staging database, it should detect that WordPress has been installed, and prompt you to login” and I am stuck – it autoredirected to the wp-login and gave me a blank page. Not a 404, just a clean white screen.
On the main page the login has been renamed so I try to navigate to that instead and again just a clean white screen.
Can anyone give me any pointers on where I’m going wrong?
Please see our guide on how to fix white screen of death in WordPress.
Hi,
Thanks for this article!
I followed all the steps but I think I have missed one
I created a staging environment and checked site url in wp-options and updated wp-config file but the staging site is being redirected to the primary site.
Do I need to change any other setting?
Hi! Thanks for the useful article!
Question, is it necessary to create a new database for your subdomain? Can’t you just use your root domain’s database?
Same for the FTP account, is it necessary to create a new one? I can now access my subdomain easily through my main FTP.
Thanks!
Best,
Ruth
Hi Ruth,
Yes, it is necessary to create a separate database and a separate FTP account.
Hello!
Perhaps this was already covered. Do I need a child theme on my sub-domain serving as my staging site? I am adding custom code and modifications to the new theme on my subdomain with the intention of switching all of this over to the live site when finally ready. Would this complicate things when switching from the staging site to replacing what is currently the live site?
Thank You!
Hi, this article is super helpful. I have encountered one problem though, when I go to visit my staging URL, I have the following message appear ‘server DNS address could not be found’. I have also cleared my cache and browser history as someone wrote this might help, but it hasn’t worked. I’m wondering what I am doing wrong. Any help would be great.
Lee
I’m having the same problem – did you manage to resolve this issue?
Thanks, Georgia
While I appreciate the detailed instructions (I don’t like installing plugins to accomplish such tasks), I don’t see any advice concerning keeping the staging and live sites in sync. WordPress sites are generally edited live with respect to content—posts, products, media, etc. Once you follow these directions, the two content sets will diverge as users add content to the live site while the developer’s staging version remains an old copy. I don’t see a good solution for this save a cron rsync job. Any tips?
After you create the staging subdomain and ftp account.
Skip all the other copying and database junk.
Install duplicator on your live site. Make a duplicate backup, which includes a zipped copy and an install. Php file.
Upload both to your staging area. (Maybe go in and create a database and user for the staging site in cpanel while you wait for the two fingers to upload)
Point your browser to staging.domain.com/install.php and follow the prompts.
Then go back to the rest of this tutorial for locking it down.
Hi, I followed another tutorial before I found this one and I installed WordPress BEFORE copying files over and running the SQL queries. My staging site does not populate with live site’s data. Any help you can offer about what to do at this point would be appreciated…
The staging site does not look exactly like my primary site. The default banner is there instead of my uploaded media (even though that file has transfered) and rather than a nav bar with drop down menus, I have a list of all of my site’s webpages. Is this normal? If not, could you point me where to sort it out?
Thanks for this article!
I keep getting this error when I try to run SQL queries ” #2013 – Lost connection to MySQL server during query”
Thank you for the great tutorial! I followed it thourgh and created a staging site. However, the staging site seems to be missing some settings from the original site (where I am working with a template), e.g. the font is different, the menu and logo is missing and some other settings are just off. Are there additional files I need to copy?
Thanks a lot!
Very thorough instructions! We currently have WordPress 4.3.6 version. I think there is a newer version 4.7; however, I am not updating due to past problems with my theme and child after an update. If I follow your instructions to install WordPress on computer, it most likely will affect the existing site as well which will cause a problem. Do you agree? and how do I proceed? thanks.
Hi Lynn,
You can safely install WordPress on your computer and import content from your live site. This way you will be able to test drive new WordPress version with your current theme and child theme.
Couple years later, is there an easier way to do this?
Lol, Mike, you’re my kinda person! And although you’ve probably sped ahead to something easier by now, I thought I would mention something that I saw but haven’t tried: Backup Buddy. I don’t know how thorough it would be for this purpose. Since my site is pretty static, I used a subdomain to reconstruct my site – just copied and pasted my content as ascii text. Bluehost said they could make it my main site (not subdomain with redirect – make it a domain) when I’m done. Of course you have to set up the widgets, plugins, etc. Still working on it because I’m definitely a beginner. This would be really laborious for a more sophisticated site.
I like the well documented article but maybe it’s just me but I can’t find anything anywhere which starts a github repository with a site that’s only on your live server! How do I pull it down to the repository and why does Cloudway s have all the addressing options. What all do I need to pull down do I need to use My SQL Work Bench?
Well done tutorial. I gave up on a staging plug-in after several attempts failed, and found this one to be easy to follow and implement.
One issue to mention and that’s the need to have a database user set up. I had to redo the process and choose the database wizard on CPanel in order to be able to set that up. That allowed my wp-config file to be set up with the info and then it worked. (My first attempt resulted in “unable to establish a database connection.” Once I established a database user, it went through.
And thank you for the the note to check the URL, with the notes to look at site URL and home on the wp-options table. That allowed to me to confirm and get going on a re-design.
I guess I found an easier way – that works for me in a project right now!
1. I just clone the files in the ftp to a /staging/ site,
2. clones the database to a dbname_stage
3. Changes the wp-config.php in /staging/ – by changing database to dbname_stage
4. Adds in wp-config in /staging/ the new WP_HOME and WP_SITEURL
define(‘WP_HOME’,’http://example.com’);
define(‘WP_SITEURL’,’http://example.com’);
Then it is super-easy to just copy the dbname_stage back to the live database called dbname
Super easy.
And if you like, you can also in the wp-config change default uploads directory to the same as the live one.. as long as you just dont have the need to “delete” media files that is.
And your changes in the theme files are easily moved back to the live site.
What about that?
I love the article – so clear instructions and well written. I’m having problems getting it working though.
I followed the instructions to get from production (www.) to test (test.) and dev (dev.)
I’ve tried all this several times in dev … two things happen
dev.example.com … goes to http://www.example.com
test.example.com … goes to test.example.com
On test when I open a post form the menu as a user – it does not show the post but a reference to the post which when I click on it, it takes me back to the same page
I’m wondering if you have any ideas on what may not have worked?
Thanks
The problem is in your DB, maybe you did left some original (www.example.com) URL’s on your dev.example.com database
Thanks for the great article. It helped me to set up a staging website for testing my new theme. But you have omitted one critical information, after copying the database the MySQL user setup for the wp to access the database needs to be given permission to access the database through the CPanel -> Mysql databases -> add a user to the database option. Otherwise, you will get “cannot connect to the database” when trying to access the admin page through the URL.
I am getting lost here:
After copying your database, you need to copy your WordPress files, plugins, themes, and uploads. First download a fresh copy of WordPress from WordPress.org. Upload the contents of WordPress to your staging site. Note, do not run the WordPress install yet.
Once you have uploaded WordPress, the next thing you need to copy is media files, plugins, and themes. The following folders will need to be copied :
Could you guys be more detailed here? Cause I don’t know the right way to upload WordPress without installing… I am missing something here, cause I can’t get it right…
Please, could you guys update this article with more information in this part?
Thanks
Please see our guide on how to upload WordPress files using FTP.
Thank you for this amazing guide! I’ve successfully created a staging site with this.
What steps do you recommend to do from Staging to Live?
Right now, I’m just writing down every changes I make and repeat it on the live site.
I’m not sure I know the appropriate method to copy Stage site to Live.
I have set up the staging site as outlined above – but now how do I get it to the live site?
I’ve been looking here, but can’t seem to find the answers. Help please?
What about using Git to track the changes made in DB ? with wordpress, there is a very high likelihood that changes made are in DB instead of in files on hosting server
Hi, got stuck at the first step itself. I followed the steps but for some reason not being able to set up a staging environment through cpanel. When I type the link i get the message ‘This site can’t be reached’.
I removed it and created again. Now I am getting 403 Forbidden error.
Same here
Thank you for this! What process do you suggest for going live with the staging site?
Hi, I have followed your steps as above but for some reason the staging URL is redirecting to the normal live URL.
I have ran the queries in the database and copied the files including updating the wp-config.php
Do you have any idea what may be going on here as the staging URL was not redirecting yesterday when I put a small test HTML page up there..
Hope you can advise
Craig
OK so I was inpatient and didn’t clear cache…. However now I’m on the staging site the database has clearly not moved well…
Lots of setting seem to have been lost.
Hi there,
Thank you so much for the detailed instructions.
Does this work for MU site?
Multi-site is at the root, and I would like to copy only the root to an especial folder. Server has other sites as subdirectories. Do not need to be copied at this point (in the futures, a couple of sites will be cloned as well)
Root should go to a subdomain for testing purposes.
Thank you in advance!
HI. I am following your tutorial and i got stuck in media files has been copied section. Checking with my FTP and Cpanel files are existing but is not showing in my media library . How can i rectify this? Thanks and your tutorial is very helpful for noobs . 5 thumbs up.
While your media files are stored on server. WordPress can’t show them unless you import data and database. Information about your media files is stored in WordPress posts table as attachment post type.
Thank you for this article; very helpful.
I’d like to add one more point; as it might help other readers too.
After you make a copy of your database, you may need to add the user from previous database to the newly created one.
Otherwise, while setting up your wp-config, you might face with authentication problem.
How do i set-up the staging environment on AWS?
Very nice and helpful article. However;
Replacing all the references in the DB (example.com with staging.example.com) will most likely break all the serialized values and you will have BIG issues on the staging site. You need to use a replacer that has serialization support.
Can you please suggest one with this serialization feature?
Thank you for this great article!
Excellent article, helped in great detail. thank you