Migrating a Site Using the All-in-One WP Migration Plugin

The popular All-in-One WP Migration and Backup plugin is the easiest way to migrate a relatively small WordPress site to a new environment directly from the WordPress admin dashboard, without needing command-line tools or file transfer software.

The plugin packages your old site's database, media files, themes, and plugins into a single .wpress file, which is then imported into your new Seravo site's dashboard.

Note on site and file sizes:

The free version of the plugin and browser-based importing work best for files under 128 MB due to Seravo's server-level HTTP restrictions.

If your site's .wpress file exceeds this limit:

Migration Method 2: SSH & WP-CLI (Free and Recommended): If you do not want to purchase premium plugins, we always recommend migrating large sites directly from the command line, which has no size restrictions: Migration Method 2: SSH & WP-CLI.
Premium Unlimited Extension + SFTP: The plugin developer offers a premium Unlimited Extension. With this extension, you can lift upload size restrictions and restore large backup files transferred directly over SFTP.

Prerequisites

Administrator-level credentials for both the old and the new WordPress site.
A new, empty site provisioned at Seravo with a temporary address (e.g., example.fi-c.seravo.com).

Step-by-Step Migration Process

1. Exporting from the Old Site (.wpress file)

Log in to your old site's WordPress admin dashboard.
Install and activate the All-in-One WP Migration plugin under Plugins > Add Plugin.
Navigate to All-in-One WP Migration > Export.
(Recommended) Click to expand Advanced settings and select:
- Exclude must-use plugins – this prevents server-specific scripts from your previous hosting provider from being transferred into Seravo's environment.
Select Export site to > File.
The plugin will create an archive. Once packaging is complete, click the flashing button to download the .wpress file to your computer. Do not close your browser while the download is in progress.

(Image: Example of recommended export settings)

2. Importing to the New Site at Seravo

Log in to your new Seravo site using the temporary address (e.g., example.fi-c.seravo.com/wp-admin).
Install and activate the All-in-One WP Migration plugin under Plugins > Add Plugin.
Navigate to All-in-One WP Migration > Import.
Select Import from > File and choose the .wpress file you downloaded previously.
The plugin will warn you that the import will overwrite the new site's database, media, plugins, and themes. Confirm the overwrite by clicking Proceed.

Large Files and the Unlimited Extension (SFTP):

If you are using the plugin's premium Unlimited Extension, extremely large files (hundreds of megabytes or gigabytes) do not need to be uploaded through the browser:

Transfer the .wpress file via SFTP to the server directory /data/wordpress/htdocs/wp-content/ai1wm-backups/.
Open All-in-One WP Migration > Backups in the WordPress admin dashboard.
The file will appear in the list, and you can initiate the restoration by clicking Restore.
(Note: The restore functionality from the Backups screen requires the premium Unlimited Extension).

3. Saving Permalinks

Once the import has finished, WordPress rewrite rules must be regenerated to avoid broken links:

Click the Permalinks Settings link that appears on the screen (or navigate in the dashboard to Settings > Permalinks).
Because the import overwrote the new site's database, log in using the Administrator credentials from your old site.
Scroll to the bottom of the page and click Save Changes.
We recommend clicking the save button twice in a row to ensure WordPress fully flushes and rewrites all routing rules.

4. Post-Migration Tasks

Login credentials: The default credentials provided by Seravo for the new site have now been replaced by your old site's credentials.
Remove the plugin: Once the migration is successful, deactivate and completely delete All-in-One WP Migration from the Plugins menu. Unnecessary plugins consume disk space and can pose security risks.
Verify site integrity: Perform an integrity and security check on your site and review the Seravo Plugin's security settings under Tools > Security.
Review and go live: Test the site’s functionality using the temporary address. Once all functionality has been tested and verified, you can point your domain traffic to the Seravo server.

Troubleshooting and Exceptions

Import gets stuck or fails (HTTP 413 or timeout):
If the .wpress file is too large for the browser or exceeds Seravo's 128 MB HTTP limit, the transfer will fail. In this case, we recommend performing the migration directly via SSH and WP-CLI (Migration Method 2), which has no size restrictions.
Must-use plugins from the old host break the site:
If the site displays errors after importing, check the /data/wordpress/htdocs/wp-content/mu-plugins/ directory via SFTP or SSH and delete any leftover files left by your previous host (make sure not to delete Seravo's own files, such as seravo-plugin).
Domain address change (Search-Replace):
Normally, the Seravo server automatically updates the temporary address to the correct live domain once the domain starts pointing to Seravo. However, if old addresses remain stuck in the database, you can run a correction from the admin dashboard under Tools > Database (Search and Replace) or from the command line:
```
wp search-replace 'https://olddomain.com' 'https://newdomain.com' --all-tables
```