Our site copy tool for cloning a website or copying a website to another server is designed to make a full copy of the relevant website, how to use the feature is described in the guide below.
To make this work we copy the files and database to the new location and created the new site in the hosting platform. We also attempt to update the website's connection string to the database to reflect the new database and we also attempt to do a find and replace within the new site, looking for the old URL and replacing it with the new.
Most of the time you should be able to copy a website within our platform and have a working clone with no further action required. But what if you do not, this guide takes you through some steps to take to get that clone working.
New URL is redirecting to the original URL
This is the most common issue with a site clone and can be caused by a few reasons. Some things to check are below.
Database connection string
It may be that the connection string of the clone is still set to use the original site's database. Check that the database details in the connection string (in wp-config.php for WordPress) match those in the hosting platform - https://support.nimbushosting.co.uk/support/solutions/articles/36000020533-accessing-a-database
Core URL in database
It may be that the core URL in the new database still contains the original URL, you can check and update that using this guide - https://support.nimbushosting.co.uk/support/solutions/articles/36000020533-accessing-a-database
Original URL still present within application
It may be that you have hard coded links set to the original URL, those will need updating. For WordPress it is also worth SSHing to the server and running a wp cli search and replace, see the guides below.
https://support.nimbushosting.co.uk/support/solutions/articles/36000079613-how-to-connect-via-ssh
https://developer.wordpress.org/cli/commands/search-replace/
Server error displayed
First thing to check here is the site's error logs, see guide below. This will tell you what is causing the error.
The main reason that we see for this issue is a static file path for a plugin. Any site clone will use a different file path to the original so the paths in the application will need to be updated. A good example of this is WordFence, the wordfence-waf.php file will always need to be updated with the new file path after a site clone.
https://support.nimbushosting.co.uk/support/solutions/articles/36000333484-wordfence-tweaks
If you have followed these steps and still cannot get it to work then don't hesitate in getting in touch with our support team.
https://support.nimbushosting.co.uk/support/solutions/articles/36000308812-how-to-get-support