How to download WordPress websites from Godaddy server to local PC

Hi, @satimis! Try to use Updraft Plus https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/updraftplus/
Backup your live site on Godaddy, download files backup and import to your site on localhost. It’s simple and exactly what you want.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 7 months ago by longnguyen.

You may also want to take a look at the Duplicator plugin. It is made specifically for migrations.

This is my zero changes technique, the platform is Ubuntu 16.04 with apache2 server:
– download files using filezilla to say: “/var/www/html/cuisine.satimis”
– snapshot database using phpmyadmin
– get the database name + user + password from wp-config.php, create these in the localhost database.
– restore the database onto localhost
– in the apache2 site config file “/etc/apache2/sites-enabled/001-local”, add a text block like:

<VirtualHost *:80>
DocumentRoot /var/www/html/cuisine.satimis
ServerName cuisine.satimis.com
ServerAlias www.cuisine.satimis.com
</VirtualHost>

(the alias is optional). The apache2 service needs to be restarted.
Details here: https://httpd.apache.org/docs/current/vhosts/
– on the localhost, in the “/etc/hosts” file add lines like these:

127.0.0.1	cuisine.satimis.com
127.0.0.1	www.cuisine.satimis.com

details on the hosts file here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hosts_(file)
– on other computers on the LAN (say the host computer is at permanently assigned IP: 192.168.1.27) these other hosts file get lines like:

192.168.1.27	cuisine.satimis.com
192.168.1.27	www.cuisine.satimis.com

You are done, the website barely knows that it has been moved.
You can switch between using the localhosted website and the GoDaddy one by commenting out the lines in the hosts file.
You can transfer files and databases at will between the two.

I have not yet done this with sites that use SSL.

Hi RossMitchell,

Lot of thanks for your detail advice and time spent.

I have a VM holding following 3 websites download on Godaddy server about 10 years ago
ballet.satimis.com
opera.satimis.com
string.satimis.com

I used Filezilla to do the job.

They are still working locally without much problem. They can be browsed on local browser (Firefox on the VM) running;
localhost/ballet
localhost/opera
localhost/string

similar to their websites on Godaddy server.

Current OS of the VM – Ubuntu 16.04 desktop upgraded from Ubuntu 14.04 desktop

The 3 websites can’t be browsed correctly on remote browser which, in this case, is Firefox on Host after upgrade.

internal-ip/ballet
internal-ip/opera
internal-ip/string

I don’t know why?

Comparing to your suggestion I found follows:

1)
? ls /var/www/html/
ballet index.html opera string wordpress

2)
? ls /var/www/html/ballet/

cgi-bin               wp-config.php         wp-includes        wp-signup.php
index.php             wp-config.php.OLD     wp-links-opml.php  wp-trackback.php
license.txt           wp-config.php.ORIG    wp-load.php        xmlrpc.php
wp-admin              wp-config-sample.php  wp-login.php
wp-blog-header.php    wp-content            wp-mail.php
wp-comments-post.php  wp-cron.php           wp-settings.php

3)
? ls /var/www/html/opera/

cgi-bin          wp-blog-header.php    wp-content         wp-mail.php
index.php        wp-comments-post.php  wp-cron.php        wp-settings.php
license.txt      wp-config.php         wp-includes        wp-signup.php
readme.html      wp-config.php.OLD     wp-links-opml.php  wp-trackback.php
wp-activate.php  wp-config.php.ORIG    wp-load.php        xmlrpc.php
wp-admin         wp-config-sample.php  wp-login.php

4)
? ls /var/www/html/string/

cgi-bin          wp-admin              wp-config-sample.php  wp-login.php
error_log        wp-blog-header.php    wp-content            wp-mail.php
index.php        wp-comments-post.php  wp-cron.php           wp-settings.php
license.txt      wp-config.php         wp-includes           wp-signup.php
readme.html      wp-config.php.OLD     wp-links-opml.php     wp-trackback.php
wp-activate.php  wp-config.php.ORIG    wp-load.php           xmlrpc.php

5)
? ls /var/www/html/wordpress/

index.php        wp-blog-header.php    wp-cron.php        wp-mail.php
license.txt      wp-comments-post.php  wp-includes        wp-settings.php
readme.html      wp-config.php         wp-links-opml.php  wp-signup.php
wp-activate.php  wp-config-sample.php  wp-load.php        wp-trackback.php
wp-admin         wp-content            wp-login.php       xmlrpc.php

6)
/etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default.conf

<VirtualHost *:80>
....
	ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
	DocumentRoot /var/www/html
....
	ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
	CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
....
</VirtualHost>

7)
/etc/hosts

127.0.0.1	localhost
127.0.1.1	music

# The following lines are desirable for IPv6 capable hosts
::1     ip6-localhost ip6-loopback
fe00::0 ip6-localnet
ff00::0 ip6-mcastprefix
ff02::1 ip6-allnodes
ff02::2 ip6-allrouters

These local copies of websites can’t be browsed on Internet now because I’m now subscribing dynamic IP.

Previously they can be browsed on Internet when I was subscribing fixed IP. The setup was as follows;
1) When the local server was up, users browsed the local copies of the websites, NOT the websites on Godaddy server.

2) When the local server was down, users browsed the websites on Godaddy server.

They were fully automatically switched. It was very interesting. Users were NOT aware. I can’t recall such a setup after lost the respective documents.

Now come back to your suggestion. Please advise how to configure the local copies of the websites. Say for example if I need to build 5 local copies of websites on a VM.

Thanks in advance.

Regards
satimis

Hi Long Nguyen and Keith,

Thanks for your links. I’ll browse them later

Regards
satimis

The 3 websites can’t be browsed correctly on remote browser which, in this case, is Firefox on Host after upgrade.

internal-ip/ballet
internal-ip/opera
internal-ip/string

I don’t know why?

The problem comes down to what is the “site address” and “WordPress address” in the dashboard > settings > general ??? These are crucial settings in locating where webpage resources are available from.

It s now necessary to describe the details of how your web browser fetches the parts for a web page. Initially you enter the page address in the browser address bar, or click on a bookmark or link. This address is resolved by the dns mechanism etc and finds your webserver, and it finds the page requested, the server then responds with a single html file, it contains the TEXT for the words on the page, and for other resources such as css and image files it provides a URL for each. The browser then fetches the contents of these resources by throwing each URL at the network, and the dns etc sends the request to the web server, and the server responds with the contents of the requested file. The surprising point is that EACH request does the full navigation of the path from your browser.

An example will show how this so easily goes wrong. Say the localhost server has an IP address of 10.0.0.67 and as is very commonly the case on localhost WordPress setups the site address is 127.0.0.1 (the universal localhost self address). So on the browser on the same machine, I can enter either “https://127.0.0.1/” OR “https://10.0.0.67/”, in both cases the server returns the results of processing index.php from “/var/www/html/index.php”, it will have the text from the homepage, and for say the style.css resource it will say it is at “https://127.0.0.1/wp-content/theme/twentyseventeen/style.css”, this is great while the browser is on the same machine as the server, all is well. BUT if you are on a different machine (say 10.0.0.50) the page text is fetched correctly, but when it comes to getting the css file, the request is not sent to the server! the network tries to find it locally on 10.0.0.50 The same happens for all the other resources.

So depending upon what the site address and wordpress addresses are set to, I suspect that when you were earlier serving pages from your localhost PC, that the critical resources were still being fetched from godaddy, as were subsequent pages.

So please give me the details of what you have in your site address and wordpress address fields.

So please give me the details of what you have in your site address and wordpress address fields.

If I understand what your question correctly:

I built all websites direct on Godaddy Server and upload all necessary data, photos, graphics, documents etc, to Godaddy Server except Youtube video and documents on Internet. For Youtube video and documents on Internet I provide their links on my websites. My desktop PC, a powerful PC with AMD 8-cores, 32G RAM, SSD hard-drive etc., is connected to 500M up/down fiber network.

For the backup copies of the websites I download all data for their building back to my desktop PC from Goaddy Server. There were lot of aftermath work for me, particularly adjusting links to data folder for running the websites. Then I can browse the websites locally on local browser and remotely on Host browser. But after several updates and upgrade of the OS, Ubuntu, then problem comes, either unable browsing them correctly on local browser or on remote browser. For such a reason I’m looking for a new way creating the backup websites on local desktop PC. It shouldn’t be so complicate and labour intensive as I’m now doing.

I’m now waiting for the official publish of Ubuntu 18.04. Then I’ll purchase a new 1TB SSD drive and will rebuilt the backup copies of all websites.

Godaddy provides backup service by adding an extra fee. I have no idea whether;
1. It is an instant and fully automatic backup, i.e after editing my websites action will be initiated automatically ?
2. Or I need to do it manually with a few clicks not so complicate as I’m now doing ?
3. Backup to their server or to my local PC ?
etc.

My hosting contract with Godaddy shall end at late April, 2018. I’ll talk to Godaddy of the service in re backup offered.

Regards
satimis

• This reply was modified 6 years, 7 months ago by satimis.

Yes, I too are looking forward to Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, I will be updating many systems.

These are the settings I need to have if I am to help you further. At each of the websites on your localhost PC
A:
– login to the WordPress dashboard
– browse to Settings > General
– tell me the text that is in the fields for “site address” and “wordpress address”

B:
– give me the contents of the “VirtualHost” blocks from the apache2 configuration.

C:
– give me the contents of your “hosts” file, probably “/etc/hosts”

Yes, I too are looking forward to Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, I will be updating many systems.

I prefer clean installation on version upgrade,

In the past I have done many version upgrades 12.04 -> 14.04 -> 16.04 etc, always having problems, particularly for hosting websites, in one or another way. Occasionally there were problems even running update and upgrade.

Fortunately all my backup websites are running on VMs of Oracle VirtualBox. I cloned the VM to upgrade. If successful then I deleted the old VM.

WordPress Address – https://cuisine.satimis.com
Site Address – same as above

/etc/hosts

127.0.0.1	localhost
127.0.1.1	homeub1404

# The following lines are desirable for IPv6 capable hosts
::1     ip6-localhost ip6-loopback
fe00::0 ip6-localnet
ff00::0 ip6-mcastprefix
ff02::1 ip6-allnodes
ff02::2 ip6-allrouters

/etc/hostname
homeub1404

? ls /var/www/html/
bakery cuisine drinks index.html kitchen wordpress

? ls /etc/apache2/

apache2.conf    conf-enabled  magic           mods-enabled  sites-available
conf-available  envvars       mods-available  ports.conf    sites-enabled

/etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default.conf

<VirtualHost *:80>
.....
	ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
	DocumentRoot /var/www/html
.....
	ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
	CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
....
</VirtualHost>

All other items commented out

Regards
satimis

Hi Long Nguyen,

Try to use Updraft Plus https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/updraftplus/
Backup your live site on Godaddy, download files backup and import to your site on localhost. It’s simple and exactly what you want.

Additional to your link I found following link;
How To Backup Your WordPress Website To Dropbox Using Plugins
https://www.elegantthemes.com/blog/tips-tricks/how-to-backup-your-wordpress-website-to-dropbox-using-plugins

Both
UpdraftPlus WordPress Backup Plugin
and
BackWPup – WordPress Backup Plugin

are available on Godaddy Server. I just checked them

I’ll try them after sorting out the remaining problems:-
1) Whether my Dropbox account allowing me to backup such size file to their server? Otherwise I have to pay a fee to upgrade my account

2) To sort out the Hard-drive space problem in my daily working PC. I still having space on my running 2TB WD drive. But I’m prepared to upgrade the current OS Ubuntu 16.04 to 18.04 on a new 1TB SSD, clean installation. All VMs will be installed on a new 3~4TB WD drive to be purchased. If temporarily installed the backup website under testing on the 2TB WD drive then later I have to migrate it to the new drive. Maybe I purchase the new 3~4TB WD drive first for this test.

I’ll come back later after sorting the problems. Thanks

Regards
satimis

Hi Keith,

You may also want to take a look at the Duplicator plugin. It is made specifically for migrations.

Very interesting.

Duplicator – WordPress Migration Plugin
is available on Godaddy Website.

It allows migrate WordPress site over to different locations. I’ll test it after sorting out the space problem on my PC as mentioned on my previous posting.

I’ll come back afterwards. Thanks

Regards
satimis

This is what you need to do.

Use the database from Godaddy, no changes, no processing through duplicator required.

Leave your sita address and WordPress address as https://cuisine.satimis.com

Configure apache to use these settings in the “sites-enabled” set:

<VirtualHost *:80>
DocumentRoot /var/www/html/cuisine
ServerName cuisine.satimis.com
</VirtualHost>

The apache2 service needs to be restarted: sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 graceful

In your /etc/hosts file add this line:
127.0.0.1 cuisine.satimis.com

Now when your browser services the web address: https://cuisine.satimis.com
It finds the entry in the hosts file, sends the request to 127.0.0.1 (the universal alias for “same computer”), so the request wakes up the apache server, apache then looks up the name in the sites-enabled config, which identifies “/var/www/html/cuisine” and loads the .htaccess file and index.php etc.
Miss any of these steps and the magic fails.

Hi RossMitchell,

Configure apache to use these settings in the “sites-enabled” set:
…..

“sites-enabled” is only a folder/directory

? ls /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/
000-default.conf

What shall I do with other 2 backup websites?
kitchen.satimis.com
bakery.satimis.com

Actually all 3 backup websites can be browsed on local browser without problem, only having problem to be browsed on remote browser

Please see attached photo:
(Sorry I don’t know how to upload a photo)

I just checked also they can’t be browsed correctly on another VM browser

satimis

• This reply was modified 6 years, 7 months ago by satimis.

Sorry, I was not clear enough.
You edit (as superuser) the apache config file “000-default.conf” and add the block there. You will need to do the same for the other websites, copy the block and edit the names and paths.

I very much doubt that with your present settings that you are really viewing your websites from the localhost server. What happens when you break the connection between the server and the internet, or between the LAN and the internet ?

With the new VirtualHost configuration, and hosts file edits, you really will be able to mirror your websites. Just comment out the lines in the hosts file to switch.

You edit (as superuser) the apache config file “000-default.conf” and add the block there. You will need to do the same for the other websites, copy the block and edit the names and paths.

There is only ONE “000-default.conf” file on /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/
I have posted it on my previous posting to you

? ls /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/
000-default.conf

?ls -al /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/

total 8
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 May 23  2014 .
drwxr-xr-x 8 root root 4096 May 23  2017 ..
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root   35 May 23  2014 000-default.conf -> ../sites-available/000-default.conf

This file controls other websites as well running locally on this VM.

I very much doubt that with your present settings that you are really viewing your websites from the localhost server. What happens when you break the connection between the server and the internet, or between the LAN and the internet ?

Yes, they are local websites. To browse the websites on Godaddy Server I must run;
bakery.satimis.com (not /localhost/bakery)
cuisine.satimis.com (not /localhost/cuisine)
kitchen.satimis.com (not /localhost/kitchen)

Just turned off the router. The local websites were still working but not the websites on Godaddy Server

satimis