Move Users & Keep Passwords

I have a live website (http://www.downloadandprint.com) and a new version I’ve developed on (http://zappadev.com/dnp/) that i’m looking to replace the current live site with. I need to keep all of my users & passwords the same. What is the best way to update the site (post,pages, ect.) but keep the user records the same?

Hi Rebecca.

Well, you have two options. Either move all the new theme and posts to the existing installation, which would leave the userbase untouched, or move the userbase to the new installation.

I’m not sure which one is best, though. I’ve never needed to do either one.

Since you’ll probably have to move the new site to its final location, you could probably just copy every table from the new installation to the old one, except for the user related tables. I have never tried this, though, you should test it in a clone of the existing one first.

Also remember you’ll have to double check that all your content access restrictions match what your users have bought.

I’ll let others share their thoughts on your question.

If I move the tables “wp_user” and “wp_usermeta” into the new site on my development server would that alter the password fields?

I’m protecting the content with short code conditionals and Level 1 users only, which are in place on the new site. So I’m not worried about the restricted content.

I honestly don’t know how that’d go before I tried it and checked that everything works fine. You can try it, but I suggest it with a test installation and see how it goes.

You can Google migrating WordPress user tables from one site to another, see what you find. Maybe you find some pages that confirm it can be done without repercussions.