Advanced Multisite Management

In this tutorial, you’ll learn some advanced multisite topics, like exporting a sub-site to a single site install or converting a multisite back to a single site install.

Learning outcomes

1. Update subsite statuses
2. Delete a subsite
3. Export a subsite into a single site
4. Convert a multisite network back to a single site install

Comprehension questions

1. Where can you change site statuses?
2. Is it possible to delete a site from the network?
3. What steps can you follow to export a site?
4. Can you convert a multisite network back to a single site?

View video transcription

Hey there, and welcome to Learn WordPress. In this tutorial, you’re going to learn how to perform some more advanced site management tasks on a multisite network. You will learn about the different possible site statuses. What happens when you delete a sub-site, how to export a sub-site to a single site install, and how to convert a multisite network install back to a single site install. There are some site status options that are available to the network admin that are useful to know about. Deactivating a site will update the site status to be deleted, and shows a message to anyone visiting the site.

Additionally, there is a deactivate blog action hook that is fired when a site is deactivated, and an activate blog action hook that is fired when a site is activated. That can be used to run additional functionality when a site is activated or deactivated. Archiving a site will update the site status to archived and show an archive message to anyone visiting the site you are up. But no additional action hooks are fired. Finally marking a site to spam we’ll update the site status to spam and show the same message as archiving. But again, no additional hooks are fired. Deleting a site from the network will remove all content associated with that site including posts, pages, comments and any other custom content types. It also removes any tables in the database that we use to house the site’s content. Unlike when you trash a post or page once you delete a site, you cannot undo this action. Under certain circumstances, you might want to extract one of the sub-sites to its own single site WordPress install. This is possible but requires some manual steps. There are a few ways to do this, we’ll just cover one possibility. First, in the network admin, switch to the sub-sites dashboard. Then browse to the tools export page. Here you can use the WordPress export tool to export the content of the WordPress Extended RSS or WXR format

then create the new single site and the associated user. Once you’ve created the site, make sure to instal any plugins or themes that were used on the sub site. Then browse to tools import and use the WordPress Importer to import the data into the new site. First instal it and then click Run importer. And choose the file you just created from the export and click Upload file and import. Lastly, make sure to assign the data to the correct user once the data is imported, manually copy the uploads directory for the sub site over to the new single site instal. You will find the sub site uploads directory in the WP content uploads sites directory of the multisite instal in a folder with the same name as the sub site ID. Last but not least instal and run a search Replace tool like better search replaced update any URLs in the database. You will need to search for and replace the sub site URL with the new single site URL. If you appointing a top level domain to the sub site, this last step might not be necessary. Finally, make sure to test everything else and make sure it’s working as expected. An alternative to the WordPress data export option is to manually copy the database tables for the sub site to the new site. However, this might lead to further issues if the content isn’t associated with the correct user. If you have any plugins that create custom database tables or custom data, you might need to manually copy these tables or this data over to the new installation. In that case, it might be easier to rely on paid third party backup solutions, but have multisite extensions and we’ll handle this for you. It’s also possible to convert a multisite back to a single site instal. This is useful if you no longer need the multisite functionality. But once you retain the original site, if you have other sub sites, it might be a good idea to export them to single site instals first, and then delete the sub sites as this one delete the sub site content tables. Additionally, delete any users that were created for the sub sites.

To revert back to a single site, you first need to remove all the multisite related constants in the WP config file. Once you do this and refresh your dashboard, it will revert back to a single site instal, you might need to log in again. If you see this message, it’s because you’re trying to access an admin URL for the network admin. In that case, simply change the URL to the regular WP admin path.

Then if you previously updated the htaccess file, you will need to revert that back to the original htaccess file. You can do this by resetting the permalinks to whatever you want them to be.

As you can see this resets the htaccess file. Lastly, manually delete any tables specifically created during the multisite installation namely WP blog meta WP blogs WP registration lock WP signups WP site and WP site meta if everything went well, you should not have a working single site instal of your original main site. And that wraps up this tutorial on some advanced multisite management tasks. Happy coding.

Introduction

Hey there, and welcome to Learn WordPress.

In this tutorial, you’re going to learn how to perform some more advanced site management tasks on a multisite network.

You will learn about the different possible site statuses, what happens when you delete a site, how to export a single site from a multisite network to its own install, and how to convert a multisite network install back to a single site install.

Site Status

There are some site status options that are available to a Network Admin, that are useful to know about.

Deactivating a site will update the site status to deleted, and shows a message to anyone visiting the site. Additionally, there is a deactivate_blog action hook when a site is deactivated, and a activate_blog action hook when a site is activated, that can be used to run additional functionality when a site is activated or deactivated.

Archiving a site will update the site status to archived and show an archived message to anyone visiting the site URL.

Marking a site as Spam will update the site status to spam and show the same message as archiving, but no additional hooks are fired.

Deleting a site from the network

Deleting a site from the network will remove all content associated with the site, including posts, pages, comments, and any other custom content types. It also removes any tables in the database that were used to house the site’s content. Unlike when you trash a post or page, once you delete a site, you cannot undo this action.

Export a site to a single site install

Under certain circumstances, you might want to extract one of the sub-sites to its own single-site WordPress install. This is possible but requires some manual steps. There are a few ways to do this, this is just one possibility.

First, log into the subsite, and browse to the Tools > Export page.

You can use the WordPress export tool to export the content to the WordPress eXtended RSS or WXR format.

Then create the new single site and the associated user.

Make sure to install any plugins and the themes used on the sub-site.

Then browse to Tools -> Import to use the WordPress importer to import the data into the new site. You may need to install the importer by clicking Install Now under the WordPress option, and then clicking Run Importer once it’s installed.

Don’t forget to assign the data to the relevant user on the new site.

Once the data is imported, manually copy the uploads directory for the sub-site over to the new single-site install.

You will find the subsite uploads directory in wp-content/uploads/sites/ directory of the multisite install, in a folder with the same name as the sub site id.

Last but not least run a search and replace tool like Better Search Replace to update any URLs in the database.

You will need to replace the sub-site URL (either the subdomain or sub-directory version) with the new single-site URL. If you were pointing a top-level domain to the subsite, this step might not be necessary.

Lastly, test everything out to make sure it’s working as expected.

An alternative to the WordPress data export option is to manually copy the database tables for the sub-site to the new site. However, this might lead to further issues if the content isn’t associated with the correct user.

Considerations

If you have any plugins that create custom database tables, you might need to manually copy these tables over to the new installation.

In that case, it might be easier to rely on paid third-party backup solutions that have multisite extensions and will handle this for you.

Convert a Multisite back to a single site install

It’s also possible to convert a multisite back to a single site install. This is useful if you no longer need the multisite functionality, but want to retain the original site.

If you have other sub-sites, it might be a good idea to export them to single-site installs first, as this will delete the sub-site content tables. Additionally, delete any users that were created for the sub-sites.

To revert back to a single site, you first need to remove all multisite-related constants in wp-config.php.

Once you do this, your dashboard will revert back to a single-site dashboard.

Then, if you previously updated the .htaccess file, you will need to revert that back to the original .htaccess file.

You can do this by resetting permalinks to whatever you want them to be.

Lastly, delete any tables specifically created during the multisite installation, namely:

wp_blogmeta, wp_blogs, wp_registration_log, wp_signups, wp_site, wp_site_meta

If everything went well, you should now have a working single-site installation of your main site.

Summary

That wraps up this tutorial on some advanced multisite management tasks.

Happy coding!