Feature: update urls in hardcoded Elementor files during site migration using Updraft Migrator
Reason: currently these urls are not updated during a site migration with Updraft Migrator resulting in non loading images.
The Elementor page builder stores urls of some images in css files. These css files are updated upon every save and contain hardcoded urls to the images.
During a site migration these urls are not updated by the Updraft Migrator.
Unless you look into the issue it appears Updraft is at fault. After some research I found this is a use case that Updraft does not handle.
Please have a look at this post by Elementor: https://docs.elementor.com/article/467-site-migration
“(…)Migrating Background Images: Background images are saved in a CSS file which has an absolute URL.(…)”
I only found this information after having migrated several websites where the background image urls would not be updated after a site migration using Updraft. As I expected Updraft to handle this I thought this was a fault in your Migrator tool. Even though it is debatable wether Elementor of Updraft is to blame, I did get a negative impression of Updraft. I can imagine I am not the only one. As Elementor is quite popular it would be beneficial for Updraft to somehow handle changing all urls for an Elementor site migration. Maybe as an extra tool or setting in the Migrator?
The alternative solution is as follows but requires additional steps after having migrated the website using Updraft:
Step 1 – Elementor -> Tools -> Replace URL -> https://localhost/ -> https://example.com -> Replace URL
Step 2 – Elementor -> Tools -> General -> Regenerate CSS -> Regenerate Files & Sync Library -> Sync Library
kind regards,
Antoine
This idea was posted in UpdraftPlus - backup/restore plugin and tagged elementor on November 1, 2019 by 
info2037.
This sounds like an issue that should be handled within Elementor. It is easy to detect a site URL change (if on one page load the site has a new URL); in that situation, it should automatically regenerate any files in which it hard-coded site URLs. That’s a lot more efficient than an external tool, like UpdraftPlus (which will only be installed on some Elementor sites) doing it.
Actually it’s not easy for Elementor to detect this. Elementor is passive and must be interacted with in order for it to do anything, such as detect url changes, and that is something that should not be occurring on a production site.
“This sounds like an issue that should be handled within Elementor. ”
The average user would expect Migrator to handle this issue.
Fact is that after a migration using UpdraftPlus Migrator the urls mentioned are NOT changed. It is true that the tool only promises to change URLs in the database and these urls are stored in text documents. Without this in depth knowledge a user of UpdraftPlus would expect the urls to have been updated by the Migrator. I initially thought it was a hiccup in the tool. After I noticed this issue happening consistently I thought UpdraftPlus just missed these urls during migration of the database. Only after contacting your support team and researching the issue myself, I found the exact reason.
“That’s a lot more efficient than an external tool, like UpdraftPlus (which will only be installed on some Elementor sites) doing it.”
I have made this feature request because I do have UpdraftPlus installed. For me it would be more efficient if UpdraftPlus would handle this use case.
It would be even more efficient if WordPress would handle urls updates after a site migration, making the UpdrafPlus Migrator obsolete. I use Migrator because it makes site migration so easy. Elementor has reasoned that adding these urls to css files instead of the database speeds up the website.
As documented, Elementor can take care of updating the urls. That involves taking extra steps after having migrated the website using UpdraftPlus Migrator. The main attraction of UpdraftPlus is that it makes migrating a website quick and efficient.
I see this request pretty much died after Updraft blew it off as an Elementor issue. This is not an Elementor issue. Our web sites now include an Elementor widget which reads in an Elementor generated json file containing urls from our staging site – and thus get blocked from being displayed on production once the staging site is migrated.
As the Migration Tool is a separately priced product from Updraft, I would expect it to do this and do it correctly.
The fact that this was blown off is even more amazing given how simple it would be automate the step of Elementor -> Tools -> Replace URLs with the exact parameters of the site being migrated from and to.