In addition to the classic method of using the installer.php file to restore or migrate a site, Duplicator Pro now includes the option to Drag and Drop the installer archive to the destination site. The classic method of using the installer.php and archive file is useful when you are installing to a completely blank directory, with no WordPress site already installed, while the Drag and Drop feature is useful when you are overwriting an existing WordPress site.
The procedure to install or restore a site using the Drag and Drop method is as follows:
1. Build a package
Build a package on the source site. It’s important to not filter any tables or core WordPress directories (these are required for Drag and Drop to work with the package)
2. Save the package to your local PC
Click the Download button on the row associated with the package you built in step 1 and click the “Archive” option to save the installer.php and archive to your local PC.
3. Install Duplicator Pro on the destination site
Install the Duplicator Pro plugin just like you did on the source site (Plugins > Add New > Upload then Activate)
4. Go to the Import screen on the destination site
Go to Duplicator Pro > Import
5. Drag the archive to the destination site
Drag the archive you downloaded on step 2 to the import area of the destination site to start the upload process.
6. Review the details about the package and then click “Launch Installer”
7. Set a Recovery Point if desired
Note: If you don’t care about possibly preserving the contents of the destination site in the event of a problem you can skip this step.
If you want to revert to a version of the destination site should something go wrong, you should first create a recovery point before continuing. See this article for a description of how to do that.
Once a recovery point has been set, click the Refresh button on this page and you’ll see the Recovery Point has been selected in Step 1.
Also, copy the Recovery URL to the clipboard and then paste it to a safe place should you want to restore the site back to the state which is associated with the Recovery Point package.
8. Click “Continue & Overwrite”
Once you are ready to install simply click the “Continue & Overwrite” button. A streamlined version of the installer will run and overwrite the existing site with the archive that you dragged to the destination.
After the streamlined installer has run just click the “Admin Login” button.
Credtis: Abstract vector created by vectorjuice – www.freepik.com