Applicable to:
- Plesk for Linux
Question
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How to copy website content to another domain in Plesk?
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How to copy website content to an external FTP storage?
Answer
Website Copying feature can be used in order to copy websites files to another site hosted under the same account or to an FTP storage.
Such copying is useful if this is a production website and you are planning to make major site changes. In such a case, you can clone the site to a staging environment and let your designers and programmers work on the clone without interrupting operations of the production site.
Copying the site files is a part of cloning the site: you will also need to copy databases used by the site to complete the cloning. If you do not have another site to use as a staging environment, you can add a domain or a subdomain for that purpose.
Note: if it is required to copy the WordPress website it is recommended to use the WordPress cloning feature instead of Website Copying.
Let's assume that copy performs from example.com to example.org. Both domains exist under the same account.
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Log into Plesk Go to Domains > example.com > Website Copying.
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Specify the following settings at the page:
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The Website in Plesk option is already selected by default.
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Select the destination domain in the Site name dropdown menu - example.org.
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Select the required option for the What to do with existing files:
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Keep existing files on the destination site
It will overwrite existing files with coinciding file names on the destination site.
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Delete all existing files
It will delete all files on the destination site before copying.
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Press the OK button to start the copying process.
Note: Website Copying feature transfers website content only.
Databases will not be transferred.
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Go to Domains > example.com > Website Copying.
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Select the FTP storage option.
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Specify the following settings on the page:
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Server host name
Specify the hostname of the FTP storage, e.g. my.ftp.storage.com.
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Port
The default port is 21.
It is recommended to leave untouched.
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Directory
Specify the directory on the FTP storage to which one the website will be saved, e.g. /backup/example.com.
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Username
Specify the username which is used for logging to the FTP storage, e.g. johndoe.
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Password
Specify the password which is used for logging to the FTP storage, e.g. password.
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FTP connection method
Select one between two options according to the requirements:
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Active mode (recommended)
Plesk sends its IP address and port number on which it will listen to an external server, and the server initiates the TCP connection. This mode is recommended when the Plesk-managed server is not protected by a firewall.
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Passive mode
This mode can be used when the Plesk-managed server is behind a firewall and is unable to accept incoming TCP connections.
If Plesk fails to connect to the external FTP account, select the Passive mode option here and try again.
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Press the OK button to start the copying process.
Comments
7 comments
Hi I have a question for you that I'm having trouble finding an answer to. I need to migrate my websites off of Plesk to a server here at our facility where we are going to host it ourselves. I so far have not found a way within Plesk to do that. Would Website Copy be the way or is there some other avenue available to do this? Thanks.
Hello @Goldie,
As I understand, it's required to move websites from Plesk server to a server without Plesk.
Plesk does not provide instruments to do this.
You'll need to move the site content manually or search for 3rd-party solutions for this.
Let me know if I've got you wrong.
Hi, thanks for the reply. I did a back up and then downloaded that but it won't work. 7-zip says that "Cannot open files as archive". Do you know of any instructions on how to unzip and use websites from a Plesk backup?
Hello Goldie Barnett,
Based on the error message I can tell that the archive you are trying to extract is not archive in .zip format. Backups downloaded from Plesk have .tar format on Linux-based system and .zip on Windows.
Plesk has native utilities to extract backup archives described here:
https://support.plesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/115001547985-How-to-restore-a-Plesk-backup-from-CLI-
We do not have any recommendation on how to make Plesk backup works on server without Plesk. Basically you need to use system tools to extract an archive. For example, to extract .tar archive from command line you should run command like tar -xvf file.tar or proceed with the article on how to extract a .zip file for Windows: https://www.barcodefaq.com/knowledge-base/extract-unzip-file/
Hi There,
How can I know when the transfer process has finished if the progress bar never showed up for some reason?
does this information is displayed somewhere else like ina log file?
Regards.
Hi Jorge,
Thanks for your question!
The copying process usually takes seconds to complete, that is why there is no status bar for it.
As for the log file - I'd like to ask you to submit a request to Plesk Technical Support, so we could do some checks and answer your question.
Thanks,
Kuzma
Hi,
I've received an error when trying to copy live website files to the staging. Also the staging is now redirecting to the live.
Tried to submit a ticket, but the option is greyed out.
Kind regards,
Simon Crewe
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