Help migrating from development to live site while saving order data

  • rustbullet · Member ·

    I have been trying to migrate our new development website to our live site, but need to make sure I keep all woocommerce user and order data intact when I do so. I have currently been trying to nail this down using the staging and development environments, but keep running into issues one way or another when I migrate data.

    I am currently using the WP Engine Site Migration plugin and I have tried excluding all database tables that are associated to woocommerce. However, because portions of the orders are stored in custom post types in the wp_posts and wp_postmeta database tables, the orders are still overwritten by the development site. If I exclude the wp_posts and wp_postmeta databases all together, then the whole frontend of the site is broken and none of the pages come over….but the backend admin order page looks great.

    I have found a method by exporting order data from the live site and then importing it in after the migration, but this is extremely time consuming. We have roughly 45k orders, and it took a couple hours to create the export file. Then it took about 20 mins to import just 1,000 orders. With the 45k orders, that’s approximately 15 hours plus the potential for errors to occur during import. I would like to avoid going this route if possible.

    I have looked at countless other plugins to try to assist in this transition, but have had no luck in finding on that will go the job. I have also trying pulling specific tables from phpMyAdmin, but this is not a simple export/import process because you also have to redirect the path names to avoid errors and there have been file changes outside of database changes, only adding to the complication.

    If there is a plugin that can simplify this process, I would love to try it! I am less experienced doing this manually, but if this is the only way and someone can point me in the right direction to guide to help that would be great!

    Any help, or a tip to get me in the right direction at this point would be invaluable. I have been pulling my hair out trying to figure this out, so now it’s time to ask for a hand. Thank you!!

    The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)

  • zdenys · Staff ·

    Hello @rustbullet!

    To start off, we encourage you to consider WordPress.com as one of the fastest and most efficient managed hosting providers.

    We have a migration service and we can attempt to migrate your staging site to WordPress.com.

    My team and I will handle the migration as we appreciate the trust you’re placing in WordPress.com, and we want it to become your new home. We’ll do our best to troubleshoot and resolve any issues so that your site is migrated successfully.

    Here are some expectations:

    • Migrations can take multiple attempts typically within 2-3 business days. Each website is different. We’ll keep you informed about the progress.
    • The import might not result in an exact replica since certain elements on self-hosted WordPress sites may operate differently on WordPress.com.
    • We may need to deactivate any incompatible plugins, such as caching plugins. We’ll let you know what we deactivate. As WordPress.com provides identical or superior functionality to most incompatible plugins, you should not notice that these plugins are deactivated on your new site.
    • Once the migration is complete, you will have the opportunity to review and compare the source and the destination site.

    We’ll add a free 7-day trial of our Creator plan so you won’t need to pay anything until you are satisfied with the outcome and ready to upgrade to a paid Creator plan.

    If you are interested, please fill in this form and we’ll promptly handle your request and share the next steps with you. Thanks!

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