Title: Can’t duplicate WP installation
Last modified: January 4, 2021

---

# Can’t duplicate WP installation

 *  Resolved [chrisjd](https://wordpress.org/support/users/chrisjd/)
 * (@chrisjd)
 * [5 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cant-duplicate-wp-installation/)
 * My Goal: I want to turn a very large, complex WordPress website on my VPS olddomain.
   com into newdomain.com.
 * My Procedure: I installed a new WordPress website at newdomain.com, downloaded
   all files via ftp from the olddomain.com directory, adjusted the information 
   for database etc. in config.php and uploaded all files again under the newdomain.
   com directory.
 * At the same time I exported the sql file of the old database to PHPMyAdmin and
   replaced the character string olddomain.com in all records with newdomain.com
   with an editor and imported it into the database of newdomain.com.
 * I thought this would work, but I get the following error message:
 *     ```
       Fatal error: Uncaught Error: Call to undefined function wp_unregister_GLOBALS() in /www/wwwroot/public_html/newdomain.com/wp-settings.php:70 Stack trace: #0 /www/wwwroot/public_html/newdomain.com/wp-config.php(94): require_once() #1 /www/wwwroot/public_html/newdomain.com/wp-load.php(37): require_once('/www/wwwroot/pu...') #2 /www/wwwroot/public_html/newdomain.com/wp-blog-header.php(13): require_once('/www/wwwroot/pu...') #3 /www/wwwroot/public_html/newdomain.com/index.php(17): require('/www/wwwroot/pu...') #4 {main} thrown in /www/wwwroot/public_html/newdomain.com/wp-settings.php on line 70
       There has been a critical error on this website. 
       ```
   
 * I’m a newbie, so I don’t know: Is the way I tried wrong? Or did I make a mistake
   somewhere?
 * 
BTW: In line 70 in wp-settings.php I read: // Standardize $_SERVER variables
   across setups.
    wp_fix_server_vars();
    -  This topic was modified 5 years, 4 months ago by [Yui](https://wordpress.org/support/users/fierevere/).
    -  This topic was modified 5 years, 4 months ago by [Yui](https://wordpress.org/support/users/fierevere/).
      Reason: please use CODE button for code formatting
 * The page I need help with: _[[log in](https://login.wordpress.org/?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Fwordpress.org%2Fsupport%2Ftopic%2Fcant-duplicate-wp-installation%2F%3Foutput_format%3Dmd&locale=en_US)
   to see the link]_

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

 *  [Tunde Abdulhamid Sanusi (Tuham)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/tuham/)
 * (@tuham)
 * [5 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cant-duplicate-wp-installation/#post-13861823)
 * If the olddomain.com files are still much intact, I would have suggested you 
   go the easy way method such as using any of the WP migration plugin in the plugin
   repository.
 *  [corrinarusso](https://wordpress.org/support/users/corrinarusso/)
 * (@corrinarusso)
 * [5 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cant-duplicate-wp-installation/#post-13861869)
 * Well – imo you should really be using a migration tool to do this for you.
    We
   usually do not need to migrate sites manually anymore. There are several options:
   [https://en-ca.wordpress.org/plugins/all-in-one-wp-migration/](https://en-ca.wordpress.org/plugins/all-in-one-wp-migration/)
   [https://en-ca.wordpress.org/plugins/updraftplus/](https://en-ca.wordpress.org/plugins/updraftplus/)
 * Secondly, instead of doing your search and replace in a text editor, you should
   be using a replace tool that “specializes” in serialized data – like this :
    
   [https://interconnectit.com/search-and-replace-for-wordpress-databases/](https://interconnectit.com/search-and-replace-for-wordpress-databases/)
   You just export your old db, then import into your local db, then run this tool.
 * Lastly, if your instanace is throwing this error, then it could be a php / apache
   compatiblity issue :
    [https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/wp_fix_server_vars/](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/wp_fix_server_vars/)
 * I would recommend :
    – installing wordpress locally – use a migration tool to
   generate a single file that is an export of your old site – import that file 
   into your local instance
 * The migration tool will take care of the domain strings, file paths, etc for 
   you.
 *  Thread Starter [chrisjd](https://wordpress.org/support/users/chrisjd/)
 * (@chrisjd)
 * [5 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cant-duplicate-wp-installation/#post-13862179)
 * Okay, thanks very much for your kind answer. I will try to take the suggested
   steps and give feedback afterwards!
 *  Thread Starter [chrisjd](https://wordpress.org/support/users/chrisjd/)
 * (@chrisjd)
 * [5 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cant-duplicate-wp-installation/#post-13869769)
 * I finally succeeded! I couldn’t do it with All-in-One WP Migration, Duplicator
   or Updraft Plus because the “Free Version” of these plugins can only deal with
   small websites. Mine has currently 12,3 GB. So I gave Migration Guru a try and
   it worked brilliantly! I’m happy with this plugin!!
    -  This reply was modified 5 years, 4 months ago by [chrisjd](https://wordpress.org/support/users/chrisjd/).
 *  [corrinarusso](https://wordpress.org/support/users/corrinarusso/)
 * (@corrinarusso)
 * [5 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cant-duplicate-wp-installation/#post-13869784)
 * Wow. 12 gigs?
    Did you migrate cache tables, or is that website data?
 * Glad it worked out!
 *  Thread Starter [chrisjd](https://wordpress.org/support/users/chrisjd/)
 * (@chrisjd)
 * [5 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cant-duplicate-wp-installation/#post-13871177)
 * Those 12 GB are mainly website data. I’m photographer and it’s a website about
   South German Shrovetide with a huge amount of images. 😉

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

The topic ‘Can’t duplicate WP installation’ is closed to new replies.

## Tags

 * [complex](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/complex/)
 * [migrate](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/migrate/)
 * [moving](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/moving/)
 * [website](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/website/)

 * In: [Localhost Installs](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/localhost-installs/)
 * 6 replies
 * 3 participants
 * Last reply from: [chrisjd](https://wordpress.org/support/users/chrisjd/)
 * Last activity: [5 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/cant-duplicate-wp-installation/#post-13871177)
 * Status: resolved

## Topics

### Topics with no replies

### Non-support topics

### Resolved topics

### Unresolved topics

### All topics