Operations
Site Transfer
Copy one connected site over another — the usual case being a staging rebuild going live. Pick the two sites, confirm, and it runs in four steps. Addresses are rewritten as it goes, including inside the serialized data page builders use for layouts, which is the part hand-rolled migrations get wrong.
Key Highlights
Staging to live from the dashboard, without SSH or a migration plugin
Database, themes, plugins and uploads in one operation
Addresses rewritten inside serialized and page-builder data
The destination is backed up first, so it can be undone
The destination keeps its own connection rather than the source's
Progress shown step by step while it runs
How It Works
Choose a source and a destination. A confirmation names both sites and states plainly that the destination's content will be replaced. Then four steps run: a safety backup of the destination, a backup of the source, the copy itself, and done. A failure during the first step means nothing was changed at all.
Why the Address Rewrite Matters
WordPress stores widget settings, theme mods and page-builder layouts as serialized data that records the byte length of every stored value. Replace the text of a URL without correcting those lengths and WordPress can no longer read the value — which is how a home-made staging migration ends up with blank Divi or Elementor modules and lost settings. MegaManager decodes those structures, replaces inside them, and re-encodes, handling the escaped forms builders write into JSON in the same pass.
Always a Way Back
The destination is copied before anything is overwritten, not after. Undoing a transfer is a normal restore of that backup from the destination's Backups tab — the same operation you would use for any other restore, not a special recovery path that only gets exercised in an emergency.
Two Sites, Two Identities
A copied database carries the source's connection details, which would leave both sites reporting themselves as the same site. The destination's own pairing is preserved through the transfer, so it stays itself in your dashboard and keeps its own backups, schedules and history.
What to Check First
A transfer replaces the destination. Anything the live site has collected since the staging copy diverged — orders, form submissions, new posts, new users — is on the live site and will be gone. Shops are rarely good candidates. Both sites must be connected and reachable, and both must be on your account.
Who it's for
Pushing a finished staging rebuild onto the live domain without a migration plugin or SSH
Refreshing a staging site from live so development starts against current content
Cloning a completed build onto a new client site as a starting point
Avoiding the serialized-data breakage that makes manual migrations lose page-builder layouts
Frequently asked questions
What happens to the destination's existing content?
It is replaced — database, themes, plugins and uploads. A full backup of the destination is taken first, so the operation can be undone from its Backups tab, but anything the live site collected after the staging copy diverged will not be in the copy you are moving over.
Do links and page-builder layouts survive the move?
Yes. Every occurrence of the old address is replaced with the new one, including inside serialized values and the escaped forms builders store in JSON, so layouts and settings arrive readable rather than blank.
Can I transfer between two different accounts?
No. Both sites must belong to the same MegaManager account. A transfer naming a site on another account is refused.
How long does it take?
Usually a few minutes, longer for large sites, and it depends mostly on how big the uploads folder and database are. Keep the page open while it runs — progress is driven from it.
Related features
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