Moving a Multisite install doesn’t have to be difficult but it can take a bit of work. What follows are the instructions on how to move a multisite install of WordPress using the Duplicator Lite plugin. Important: These steps do not apply when using Duplicator Pro, since they have been folded into the logic of that plugin.
If you are moving a multisite network to a new host or domain, a bit of tweaking is required. No tweaking is required if you are restoring to the same host and domain however.
Core Steps
- Install plugin
- Network activate plugin
- On site 1, perform the backup. That will capture the entire site into a package
- Restore the site in the new location just like normal Duplicator/Pro procedure
Post-Install
After the site has been restored to the destination site please execute the following changes
Database Changes
- wp_site: Update values the new domain and path
- wp_blogs: Update values for new domain and path for each sub-site/blog
- wp_x_options (one for each sub-site/blog, where x is the blog-id): update values for option_name like ‘siteurl’, option_name like ‘home’, option_name like ‘upload_url_path’ and there’ll be others if you’ve got things like woocommerce, etc. installed, you can also update these via the network admin > sites > SITE_NAME > edit > settings themselves..
wp-config.php Changes
define(‘DOMAIN_CURRENT_SITE’, ‘NEWVALUE’);
define(‘PATH_CURRENT_SITE’, ‘NEWVALUE’);
.htaccess Changes
Validate the .htaccess file, so that might also need to be updated, see here: http://codex.wordpress.org/Multisite_Network_Administration#.htaccess_and_Mod_Rewrite