How do I synchronize my WordPress sites?

You may need to sync the contents of your WordPress site including its database and files with a WP site in following conditions:
⦁    You have a staging WP site (non-public version) on a different subdomain or domain and want to copy the edits you have made   on it to a production (publicly available) version for making it available publicly.
⦁    You wish to replicate the data on production (public) WP site to a staging site, so that you can see how a new change, like a plugin works in the live environment. If all is found good, you may want all changes synched back to the live environment.
⦁    You had some changes implemented to the staging site and the changes created new tables in the DB. Now you want only these tables to be copied to production version with no modification of any other data.
⦁    You upgraded the staging site, fixed all after-update issues and now want all these changes to reflect in the live environment. 
You can sync WordPress database and/or WordPress files as needed. This needs to be kep in mind while synchronization:
The source data is copied to destination data. Files or tables on both the sides that are not identical are copied, but those that are present only on the destination are not affected. 
⦁    The destination website enters maintenance mode during sync and will be unavailable temporarily.
⦁    If destination site is on older version than source site, then it’s first upgraded to match the source’s version and then synched.
⦁    If the destination is of newer version than the source site, then the process is aborted. To perform syncing, then you’ll need to upgrade source site version to the destination one’s or later.
⦁    If the prefix of database on the source and destination is different, then destination site’s DB prefix will be made to match that of the source’s site.
⦁    Synchronization between a regular WP site and a multisite is not permitted. It’s recommended that cloning should be then used.  

Important: In synching, database and files from source are written over those at the destination site. If changes are made on the destination before synchronization, they will be discarded and hence, lost without any warning.

For synchronizing data of a WordPress site with other site, follow the steps given below:

1. 1. 1. Go to Websites & Domains section and click on WordPress on right side menu.

1. 1. 2. Whichever WordPress installation you want to sync, click on the Sync button next to its name.

1. 1. 3. Select destination WP installation with which you want the data to be synchronized, below Destination WordPress Installation. It can be of the same or other subscription.

1. 1. 4. Different options to select data to be copied are available. Select the one you need from them – Files Only, Database only, Files and Database both. 

Note: wp_config, web.config and .htaccess files will not be synched as this may disrupt WP operation.

1. 1. 5. Click on OK once you have selected content and destination for synchronization.

Once sync is done, a page showing source’s settings will open. On it, last synchronization details are visible.

Synchronization of Database:

If you select Database Only or Files and Database option, you have to specify the tables of DB that you want synchronized:

• All Tables – default option.
• New Tables
• Selected Tables – if this option is selected, you’ll see list of DB tables that are available and can choose the ones you need synched. To sync all changes excluding posts, pages, and users, select all the tables in database except the ones with _posts, _users, _postmeta and _username suffixes.