How to migrate a subdomain from WP.com to WP.org Multisite?

  • Resolved hsoienterprises

    (@hsoienterprises)


    2 years, 3 months ago

    Hello. I am trying to figure out how to migrate a WordPress.com site that is Domain Connected to a subdomain, to a www.ads-software.com Multisite with the same subdomain – struggling with how to manage the subdomain and export/import process.

    I have a blog hosted at WordPress.com and I wish to move it to my own www.ads-software.com hosting. To illustrate: I have fooblog.wordpress.com. I use WP.com Domain Connect to remap that to blog.foo.com. I made a fresh install of www.ads-software.com at foo.com, enabling Multisite configured for subdomains because the whole reason I’m installing Multisite is to support blog.foo.com as a second site. I go into the WP Network Dashboard -> Sites, Add New. So… I enter “blog.foo.com”. OK, seems to be created?

    The UI then tells me if I want to go to the site’s Dashboard, the URL it gives me is blog.foo.com/wp-admin – which stands to reason! However, this is where I’m hitting a wall and need help.


    How do I contend with the fact Multisite wants the subdomain address, but the subdomain still points to wordpress.com? How then can I do the export/import to migrate? How can I even get to the Multisite-installed-subsite’s Dashboard to even configure it and do the import??

    I had asked WordPress.com Support another question and conversation turned to dealing with this topic. I know images are transferred during the import process, so could subdomain resolution matter? Would order of operations matter? I asked:

    Also, in the move from CNAME to Multisite for the subdomain, does order of operations matter: For example: adjust CNAME after export-import? Adjust before? Adjust after export and before import? Does order of operations matter, and if so what is the correct order? In the end I do reckon I need to do SOMETHING with the CNAME and (sub)domain stuff to make this work, yes?

    They responded:

    Because of this, the order of operations for moving the domain does matter—we recommend keeping your subdomain blog.foo.com pointing to your WordPress.com site until after you have confirmed that all content, including media, has been successfully imported at your new host. After you have imported all the content you need from your old site, you can point your subdomain to your new self-hosted site and cancel your WordPress.com upgrades.

    So I get it, I see why they suggested that order of operations. Still tho, Multisite wants to already use the subdomain to get around… and what I’ve dug up so far tends to just cover new sites under Multisite and thus you can first do the DNS work for the subdomain, then make the Multisite subsite, and boom happiness occurs. It’s this case of the migration from WP.com to WP.org but not just WP.org but Multisite too along with the subdomain migration interaction… that’s where I’m stuck.

    Seeking guidance. Thank you.

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)

  • This is a tricky migration.

    The way i would tackle this is first migrate fooblog.wordpress.com to a stand alone wp org site (not multi site foo.com) e.g. mytemp-standalone.foo.com and get that site full the way you want it.

    Then I would migrate mytemp-standalone.foo.com into the foo.com multi site as blog.foo.com

    As an aside, I have always found subdomain multi site a pain and prefer to have a sub-directory multi site and then use domain mapping to map the sub domain, this give so much more flexibility

    e.g. you can migrate into foo.com/blog and then later map blog.foo.com to foo.com/blog

    There may be many possible migration tools to use between single an multi site but this is the only one I have used consistently successfully https://github.com/10up/MU-Migration

    Thread Starter hsoienterprises

    (@hsoienterprises)

    Hi Alan. Thank you for the reply.

    So you’re saying basically:

    1. Create a temp subdomain like temp.foo.com
    2. Install a fresh WP.org install at temp.foo.com
    3. Migrate fooblog.wordpress.com to temp.foo.com
    4. Disconnect blog.foo.com subdomain from wp.com and do the DNS work to make it go from foo.com proper
    5. Create WP.org Multisite site for blog.foo.com
    6. Export from temp.foo.com, import to blog.foo.com
    7. Delete temp.foo.com

    And hopefully all should be well??

    If so, I’ll give it a shot (it’s proving an interesting learning experience). If it fails, I’ll look at the subdirectory route.

    Thank you!

    Basically.

    Top tip, set you DNS ttl ( time to live ) as low as you can before starting this.

    Thread Starter hsoienterprises

    (@hsoienterprises)

    Well…?this isn’t working out.

    I tried the MU-Migration tool, but it wouldn’t install. git clone failures that I don’t have the bandwidth to dig into right now.

    I tried some other “manual” ways I found, and I got most of the way there… but things like media didn’t import over.

    And I admit, as I’m working through this, the more I start to think that, given some of the legacy baggage I’m dealing with, the solution here may wind up being that I have 2 WP.org installs: one at and for the foo.com and general stuff about the site, then a second blog.foo.com installed as a cPanel subdomain with a second WP.org install within that subdomain’s directory. It’s not ideal to have 2 WP installs, but I think with all the legacy involved it’s probably the best I can do right now.

    Maybe down the road I can investigate Multisite again, but for now this is mostly about getting this project put to bed.

    Alan – thank you so much for your time and help. I appreciate it muchly.

    the whole reason I’m installing Multisite is to support

    Sorry I missed this buried in the text, I would have advised that unless you have very good reasons to have a multisite don’t use it if it is effectively to support separate sites ( subdomain or not ). Build them as standalone if they can be and if you have lots, use one of the excellent management consoles if needed.

    Thread Starter hsoienterprises

    (@hsoienterprises)

    Yeah…?this is what I’m learning. But it’s all good – the exposure has taught me a number of things.

    Thanks again!

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)
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