Transferring of the domain by website importing fails: Unable to locate the document root directory of the website

Symptoms

• Transferring of the domain example.com by Website Importing fails with following error:

  PLESK_ERROR: Unable to locate the document root directory of the website automatically. 
  Please specify source document root and source website URL in the options below.

• Specifying source document root and source website URL fails and following error message is shown:

  PLESK_ERROR: Getting information
  Unable to locate the document root directory of the website.
  Possible reasons:
  1. The FTP user only has access to a directory inside the document root.
  For example, this can happen when migrating the website http://example.com/ if the FTP user only has access to a subdirectory of the website, e.g. http://example.com/blog.
  To resolve the issue, specify correct source document root and source website URL in advanced options below.
  2. The document root of the website is located more than three levels deep relative to the FTP root directory.
  For example, this can happen when migrating the website http://example.com/ if its document root directory is /var/www/vhosts/my/sites/example.com/httpdocs and the FTP user root is in /var/www/.
  To resolve the issue, specify correct source document root in advanced options below.
  3. There are rewrite rules for the document root (for example, specified by mod_rewrite and the .htaccess file).
  To resolve the issue, temporarily disable the rewrite rules.

• Website example.com hosted in Plesk source server is not accessible, a Plesk server default page is shown instead;
• Website source files are accessible through FTP from target server to source server.

Cause

Plesk Migrator tool cannot verify website source due to rewrite rules in .htaccess file in the root website directory on the source server.

Resolution

1. On the source server, go to Domains > example.com > File Manager.
2. Temporary disable rewrite rules by renaming .htaccess file located in source website root directory (e.g to .htaccess.old).
3. Open a browser and verify that example.com is accessible.
4. Import the website once again.