Duplicate WordPress site for local development and testing environment

Posted on August 6, 2009

1. Download all files from eg http://example.com, upload to eg http://localhost/example/.
2. Export mysql database from example.com
3. Create a local mysql database with the same user, password and database name. These can be found in wp-config.php
4. Import the database into your new local account
5. Log in to the database, and do:

update wp_options set option_value='http://localhost/example/' where option_id=1

You’ll now be able to log in at http://localhost/example/wp-admin, using the same username and password as http://example.com/wp-admin.
5. In WordPress, click ‘Settings’ and change the blog address to your local address.
6. Profit!

1. David says:

   September 7, 2009 at 2:43 pm

   Instead of step 5 you can do

   update wp_options set option_value=’http://localhost/example’ where option_id=39;

   Valid for WordPress 2.8

   Reply
2. Sebasjan Sol says:

   February 6, 2010 at 2:41 pm

   Im having a problem with my content working with this solution. Got the homepage working and I can log into the dashboard with my duplicate copy of my site, however when I navigate to any page, I get Error 404.

   Any suggestions as to what I can do regarding getting my db content to work properly would be greatly appreacited!!

   - Sebasjan Sol

   Reply
   • David says:

     April 7, 2010 at 1:10 pm

     I think that’s unrelated to wordpress… maybe .htaccess? How did you go?

     Reply