Transferring site with no Access to Plugins or FTP!

  • I am helping a carpet cleaning guy clean up his mess of a situation with a website company that is seemingly on the mend. This individual randomly called me off of a craigslist ad (I guess those do work!) I posted months ago. But I digress…

    I have access to the WordPress dashboard of his current site, but that is it. I need to transfer it over to his new host GoDaddy (I didn’t recommend them, that is just who he was already working with). He wants me to keep the site at least 90% accurate to the one he currently has up, except he will have a new domain name. I also see the theme that was used by this unresponsive “web company”. So here are the steps I am going to take…I pray they work:

    1) Export his current site’s XML file
    2) Purchase the junk theme he is currently using because getting the license info will be impossible, because according to him, the web company hasn’t responded to calls or emails for over a month now.. ??
    3) Import the XML file
    4) Missing anything?

    I already know that the 300 or so media files on his current site will be “lost”. I told him I would at least get the 20 most recent (he dutifully posts at least two blog updates a month on his site because the web company told him to…with photos of cleaned carpets), but that I didn’t want copy/paste 300 photos from his current site forever.

    I am bummed that I have no Plugin access or FTP access (again, the web company that handles his site is unresponsive, and they locked him out of Plugins and FTP…because why would a carpet cleaner guy that barely knows email need that stuff?! Except for when he needs it now!) because I could use my trusty WP Migrate and Importer plugins at the very least..

    Anything I can do?

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

  • 1. You’re going to want to create a backup of the database.
    2. Once you do that, you’ll need to create a new mysql database and import the one you exported from the previous site.
    3. Upload the original files
    4. Import the XML file of all the content you exported (pages, posts, etc.). Remember that this is only necessary if you are starting with a new mysql database. Doing this with the same database will cause duplicates.
    5. Update the URL’s

    If you don’t have access to the current site’s FTP, there’s a plugin called Duplicator that seems to lend itself to your situation. I’ve never used it so I can’t vouch. Off the top of my head, though, this will be your only shot at getting the current site’s files. Also, the media files should be in the wp-content/uploads/ directory. My advice would be to contact the original designer to demand access to the files. If the site legally belongs to your client, there may be legal issues with them not giving you access (I’m not a lawyer). Let me know if you have any further questions!

    Best,

    Ren

    Thread Starter kjoboyle

    (@kjoboyle)

    Ren, that’s the problem…I have NO access to plugins (like the seemingly great one you suggested) or to the FTP wp content folder. I have transfered sites the way you describe in the past, but without access to plugins or FTP on this guy’s website, I have to do it a different way…if there is.

    I can call and send emails to the current out of state web developers my “client” is trying to leave, but if these people act like they fell off the face of the earth, my options are limited to the WordPress dashboard that has no plugin access because these web guys didn’t want him to break the site ever.

    I guess a letter from a lawyer might set turn straight…but I would rather not go this route in the interest of time and $$.

    Any other suggestions would be great.

    Without full admin access within WordPress and/or FTP access, you don’t really have many options. The export/import should pull over his media attachments (assuming you have access to Tools -> Export) but that’s about all you can do.

    As esmi said, you are very limited. There are no solutions to the best of my knowledge without having complete admin access or FTP. Your only real option is to just export the content and import it on the new site. That’s a tough situation.

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)
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