How to clone or migrate a WooCommerce WordPress store automatically using UpdraftPlus

Running a WooCommerce store is not easy. Your store’s plugins, themes, WordPress version and WooCommerce all need regular updates, which are highly recommended as they can help improve your overall store functionality.

But making changes on the live store can be problematic – especially in case of new updates and features. UpdraftPlus lets you clone a site by creating an operational copy, providing a safe environment that allows you to test the latest updates and changes. This method ensures you avoid any kind of crash or unexpected behaviour when you make the actual live updates.

More than just a backup plugin, UpdraftPlus can be used to clone your WooCommerce store in just a few clicks. The best part is, you can do it all from the WordPress dashboard itself.

Getting Started

First,  ensure the UpdraftPlus plugin is installed on your site. You can use the free or Premium version of the plugin.

Before you start, make sure you turn off any proxies that are between you and your site, such as Cloudflare, GoDaddy’s “Preview DNS” proxy or Opera Turbo/Road mode as these can potentially interfere with the clone process. Caching and minifying plugins are also a possible cause of migration problems. If possible, disable these before you create your backup – or alternatively, turn them off if the migration stumbles.

Please follow these steps:

To keep it simple we will use the following source and destination site.

Source site : https://localhost/wc

Destination Site : https://localhost/wcclone

Ensure that the destination site has a fresh copy of WordPress installed on it. The source site will be your WooCommerce store.

Clone a WooCommerce store using UpdraftPlus

First, ensure that UpdraftPlus is present on both the source and the destination site.

Go to the ‘Migrate/Clone’ tab of your destination site. Click on the ‘Receive a backup from a remote site’ button to open settings.

You do not need to change any settings. Click on the ‘Create Key’ button.

Copy the generated key as this will be required soon.

Next, head over to the source site and go to the ‘Migrate/Clone’ tab. Click on the button ‘Send a backup to another site’.

Click on the ‘Add a site’ link and paste the site key that you just copied from destination site.

Next, click the ‘Add a site’ button.

You should now see the destination site URL and a ‘Send’ button. Click the ‘Send’ button.

Next, you will be asked to select the options that you want to clone. Typically you need to choose all options except ‘WordPress core’ as we have already installed WordPress on our destination site.

One you have ticked all the options required, click the ‘Send’ button. UpdraftPlus will now start the process of migrating your site to the destination site. This will take some time depending on the size of your online store. After completion of the process, you should see the backup set in ‘Existing Backups’.

This indicates that the source site has successfully sent a backup set to the destination site.

Restore the backup on the destination site

Once you have completed the above steps, head over to the destination site. In the ‘Existing Backups’, you will now see the backup set which was sent by your source site (your WooCommerce store).

Click the ‘Restore’ button and then tick all options.

Next, you will see a checkbox for database restoration options. Tick the checkbox and continue the process. As we are restoring the database of the source site, we need to update the URLs with the new site URLs.

Be patient and wait for UpdraftPlus to finish the process of migration. Once complete, log out of the dashboard.

Login again and you will see your WooCommerce store has been cloned successfully.

In conclusion

Cloning a WooCommerce site might seem like a big task that requires a lot of technical expertise, but with UpdraftPlus, you can simply and quickly clone your WooCommerce Store in just a few clicks.