How can I get rid of my WordPress multisite installation?

[Lowrider]

Hey,

I need your help :-) Two years ago, I started two sites and put them on one WordPress multisite installation. Back then, I didn’t know if it’s better to have two separate WordPress installations or one multisite. I went for a multisite installation. Now I have the issue, that I’m not working on the site anymore, that is still the „main site“ in WordPress.

That's how is see it in the file manager of my hosting company:

/home/www/siteA.com <— All data is stored there (The site I’m not using anymore)
/home/www/siteB.com < — Folder is empty (The site I want to have as my main site)


I would like to delete "siteA" as my main site and only have a single WordPress installation with "siteB"

But, I don’t want to mess up everything wrt SEO and the data. I would get the help of a WordPress developer, however, I would like to have an idea how complex it is? Does it take 5 minutes or 5 hours? (Both sites are small sites)

 

[Ryuzaki]

The main issue here is that the Multisite installations all share a single bigger database. So it's not going to be as easy as exporting from phpMyAdmin and copying the wp-content folder over to a new installation, etc.

You could export your content with the native Import/Export plugin Wordpress comes with, though you'll need to set up all of your plugins and plugin settings (and theme stuff) manually again.

There might be some premium plugin that can perform the migration for you, but I'm thinking doing it manually is going to be the best way.

You'd start by creating a new Wordpress installation on the new server and copy over the theme, plugins, and wp-content/uploads/ files.

The challenge is copying over only the database tables you need for this specific site, and then editing their names so it all works with a single-site installation.

I tell you what, rather than trying to type it all out, there's tons of great tutorials out there to get it done. Kinsta has one here.

If you aren't comfortable with dealing with it, I'd definitely find a developer to do it. Someone that's done it before and is comfortable editing databases should be able to do it (allowing time for surprises and being careful) maybe 2-3 hours, but I'd allow 4-5 really. It's not something you want to rush to save $100 bucks.

 

[Stones]

WP migrate DB Pro with bells and whistles will do it. It's probably not worth the ticket.

Any Dev with a pedigree off Upwork would be cheaper.