My WordPress site failed to migrate

Struggling with migrating your site?  This article provides an overview of common problems and solutions.

• Security and caching plugins are deactivated.
• Proxies such as Cloudflare, Pmsproxy and Opera Turbo are disabled (this list is not exhaustive).
• UpdraftPlus is installed on your source and destination sites.

If you’re having problems migrating using the site-to-site (key) transfer method and need to complete it urgently, please use the following method: 

1. On your source site, go to UpdraftPlus >> Backup / Restore >> Existing Backups and download your preferred backup.
2. On your destination site, go to UpdraftPlus >> Backup / Restore >> Existing Backups >> Upload backup files and upload the backup.
3. Click “Rescan local folder…“, then click the Restore button next to your backup.

If you haven’t already, install and activate UpdraftPlus Premium so that you can access the premium migration options, then follow these steps.

1. Visit the UpdraftPlus >> Premium / Extensions tab on both the source and destination sites and check that your account is connected.
2. If your account is connected you will see the “You are presently connected….” message.
3. If not, you’ll need to log in with the username and password you used when you made your purchase. If you’ve lost your password, you can reset your password here.

After a restoration, UpdraftPlus stores your old files to enable you to check everything is working correctly.  After you have verified this, the folder should be deleted.

This error message occurs when these folders have not been removed prior to starting a new restoration.

In order to start a new restoration, click the Delete Old folders button on the UpdraftPlus >> Backup / Restore tab.

For security purposes, it’s always best to store your backups offsite in a remote storage location. When migrating, UpdraftPlus uses the local wp-content / updraft folder to move your backups between your source and destination sites.

When migrating your current site, UpdraftPlus will automatically make a backup to your local folder before sending it.

To migrate an existing backup that is not stored locally, follow these steps:

1. Download your backups from your remote storage location (e.g., Dropbox or Google Drive).
2. Upload the backup to your destination website.
   Option 1: Connect to your website via SFTP (Secure File Transfer Protocol) and upload the backup files to the wp-content/updraft folder.Option 2: On your destination website, navigate to UpdraftPlus >> Backup/Restore >> Existing Backups >> Upload backup files. Use the uploader to add the backup files.
3. On your destination site, click UpdraftPlus >> Backup/Restore >> Existing Backups >> Rescan local folder for new backup sets.
4. Click the Restore button next to the backup set.

• Navigate to UpdraftPlus >> Settings >> Show expert settings.
• Uncheck the Delete local backup option.
• Click the Save Changes button.

It should also be noted that files kept locally will not be subject to your retention limits.

Your source and destination sites should have the same versions of PHP and WordPress.  If they do not, your restoration may not work as expected.

You can test the compatibility of your source site with different WordPress and PHP versions before you migrate using UpdraftClone.

This error occurs when you’re transferring your website from one server to another (as in the case of moving hosting companies), but the website’s address remains unchanged.

UpdraftPlus uses a site key to link the source and destination sites and as such expects the associated website addresses to be unique.

To migrate between servers without changing your website address, please take a look at our moving hosts guide.

The following section outlines some common errors which may occur when migrating your site.  If your error is not listed, please contact our support team who will be happy to assist you.

The default location for UpdraftPlus log files is the wp-content / updraft folder on your website.  The file will be named according to the following format: log.e6e671bf1be6.txt  and have a ‘last modified’ date time which matches that of your migration.

ModSecurity is a Web Application Firewall (WAF) which is available on Apache, NGINX and IIS servers.  If you experience problems sending your site during the connection phase of the migration, please contact your host and ask them if ModSecurity is active.  If it is, they will likely need to add an exception to the ModSecurity Firewall rules to allow your migration to start.

Unexpected response: Error: Response from remote site could not be understood (response_not_understood)
Unexpected response: Error: Unexpected HTTP response code (403) (unexpected_http_code)
remotesend: upload: error (Exception)
remotesend: ERROR (Exception) 
updraft_send_command: error: UpdraftPlus: could not parse the JSON (502)

pCloud: chunked upload exception (Exception): cURL error 28: Operation timed out after 180001 milliseconds with 0 bytes received

The process of uploading your backup to pCloud timed out.  This may occur when there is a network failure between your web hosting server and the pCloud server.

How to fix it:

Navigate to UpdraftPlus >> Settings >> Show expert settings >> Split archives every.
Reduce the file size to 25 MB.
Click the Save Changes button.