Creating a new website with Local is as easy as ever. But what if you’re working on a not-so-fresh project?
with the latest and greatest local products WP migration, importing your site locally has never been easier. Even a live site with an active database and a bunch of published content.
There are two factors that make all this possible.
- Site-wide export: Version 2.6 WP Migrate Lite (Free plugin available on WordPress.org) now allows you to download the entire site as a .zip file. It’s a database, media, themes, plugins and everything else you need all wrapped up in a nice little package. You can also configure what is included and what is not included.
- local: The latest release of Local has the ability to parse this .zip file and launch an exact copy of your site in Local in seconds, so you can start working faster than ever before.
No connection keys or deployment pipelines required, just a few clicks. Export file -> import file and boom and done.
If you’re more of a visual person, we created Quick video walkthrough to help you get started.
But first, let’s zoom out and get a better understanding of Local, WP Migrate, and how the two work together.
![Local promotional image. The laptop is open, with Local on the screen, a green navigation he bar on the left and a friendly open sans typeface. To the left of the laptop sits the tool's unofficial mascot, the Local robot. To the right of the laptop sits a small succulent plant in a terracotta pot.](https://wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Local-Laptop-Hero4-1024x568.png)
With over 1 million active users, Local is one of the WordPress community’s most beloved developer tools. Anyone building a site with WordPress can use Local for speed and simplicity, creating new sites and testing changes and updates in a stress-free local environment.
Some of Local’s favorite features include:
- cloud backup: Quickly push and pull files between Local and cloud storage providers like Google Drive and Dropbox, and get them backed up from anywhere on any computer with Local installed.
- image optimizer: This add-on improves desktop loading speed by scanning and compressing image files on local sites.
- Local connection: Easily move your site between your local development environment on Local and your live environment on Flywheel or WP Engine.
- live link: Turn your locally built site into a real test environment, quickly send live links to clients, and test on multiple devices.
![WP Migrate logo on a white background. The icon to the left of the wordmark is a circle, in which he has three birds flying through the clouds.The wordmark on the right reads WP Migrate in a sans serif typeface](https://wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/WPMigrate-logo-1024x576.jpeg)
Local makes local WordPress development easy, while WP Migrate takes the frustration out of migrating your WordPress site, allowing you to manage databases, media libraries, themes, plugins, and even WordPress Multisite, all from a single plugin. Make migration easy.
Key features of WP Migrate are:
- Find and replace: Tracking your site URLs and directories can quickly become a headache when migrating your WordPress site, but you don’t have to. WP Migrate detects this data and quickly performs a search and replace across post content, pages, widgets, options, and metadata. It also handles content created by the block editor.
- serialized data: Serialized data can easily get corrupted during website migrations. WP Migrate solves this problem by performing a special find-and-replace to avoid data corruption during the migration process.
- Database backup: Before running a migration, WP Migrate will back up your database if you choose the backup option, allowing you to version it and restore old information if needed.
The recent updates to both Local and WP Migrate represent an important step towards WP Engine’s developer ecosystem vision, allowing people of all levels of ability to move faster and build better with WordPress. will do so.
Want to submit your WordPress site the other way and deploy from local to real production? WP Engine and Flywheel customers can easily do this Local connection.
For a complete and fine-tuned migration solution, WP Migration Pro Ready to simplify and streamline your complete migration experience.
Learn more about importing your local development environment with WP Migrate hereagain Talk to a WP Engine Specialist Today for answering your question.