WP Clone Plugin

This page describes a WordPress plugin named WP Clone that makes an exact copy of an existing WordPress site. We’re not the authors of WP Clone, but we provide instructions for it to customers who wish to copy their site this way.

The WP Clone plugin is similar to the Duplicator plugin that we recommend. In our testing, the WP Clone plugin seems slightly less reliable than Duplicator, especially on larger WordPress sites that have hundreds or thousands of posts. However, it has one possible advantage: it doesn't require that you use FTP. So customers who have a small site and wish to avoid FTP entirely may wish to try WP Clone first, and use Duplicator only if WP Clone doesn’t work.

Follow the steps below to install the WP Clone plugin on your existing WordPress site and copy the content to our servers.

Install the WP Clone plugin on the existing site

The first step is to install the WP Clone plugin on your old, existing WordPress site.

  1. Download the latest version of the WP Clone plugin.
  2. Login to your old WordPress site.
  3. From the WordPress sidebar, click Plugins, then Add New.
  4. At the top, click the Upload link.
  5. Choose the “.zip” file you downloaded and click Install Now.
  6. Click Activate Plugin.

Run WP Clone on the existing site

Now that the plugin is installed, you can use it to create a backup file containing your entire website and database contents:

  1. Choose WP Clone from the WordPress sidebar.
  2. Click the Create Backup button. This process can take a long time depending on the size of the site. The screen will update once the progress is complete.
  3. When the backup is successful, click the Copy URL link.

This completes the steps you need to take on the old site. The rest of the steps are done on our servers, on the new site.

Install a new copy of WordPress on our servers

Use our “My Account” control panel to install an empty, new copy of WordPress on our servers in the new location.

Install WP Clone on the new site on our servers

Now install the WP Clone plugin to the WordPress installation you have just set up on our servers. The instructions are the same as above — except you’ve already downloaded the plugin, so just:

  1. Login to your new WordPress site.
  2. From the WordPress sidebar, click Plugins, then Add New.
  3. At the top, click the Upload link.
  4. Choose the plugin “.zip” file you downloaded and click Install Now.
  5. Click Activate Plugin.

Use WP Clone on the new site

Now use the plugin you just installed to import (or “restore”) the old site’s contents:

  1. Choose WP Clone from the menu on the left of the new site.
  2. Click the Restore from URL button.
  3. Paste the URL that was copied from the old site into the text box.
  4. Check the box to agree that you have nothing on value in the new site (which you shouldn’t, because all you’ve done is install WP Clone on it).
  5. Click the Restore from URL button.

Test your site

At this point the “clone” is complete. You should test your new site to make sure everything looks and works as expected.

If your new site asks you to login again, remember that it’s cloned everything, including your username and password, from the old site. If your old site had a different password, your new site now has that same “old” password, too.

Having trouble with the “WP Clone” plugin?

If the “WP Clone” plugin doesn’t work for your site for some reason, the Duplicator plugin is similar and may be worth a try.

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