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Import Website into Plesk

With the Plesk Website Importer Tool, you can transfer existing websites from an old web server to your new Plesk server. The import runs directly through the Plesk interface.

Compatible with Liveconfig Hosting

If you are a legacy customer, you can move your website from our old Liveconfig system with just a few simple steps!

Requirements

  • FTP login details (username/password) for the old web server
  • A domain or subdomain in the Plesk hosting at Servercow where the website will be imported

Step-by-Step Guide

  1. Log in to Plesk
    Log in to your Plesk customer panel. (See guide Log in as Webhosting Administrator)

  2. Start Website Import

  3. Select the desired domain or subdomain from the menu.

  4. In the Dashboard, click on Website Import.

  5. Enter Connection Details

  6. Switch to advanced mode.
  7. Enter the Source Domain Name, e.g. web.servercow.de.
  8. Enter the Source Website URL, e.g. https://example-site.com.
  9. Leave Document Root empty.
  10. Select FTP as connection type.
  11. Username/Password: Your FTP account details from the old server.
  12. Root directory: Folder where your website files are stored (relative to the FTP login root).
  13. File list retrieval mode: Over FTP/SSH.

  14. Transfer method: FTP.

  15. Import Files

  16. Plesk connects to the old server.
  17. You select the source directory; once confirmed, the import starts.
  18. All website files will be copied into the target directory on the Plesk server.

Transferring Databases Manually

The Website Importer Tool can sometimes import databases, but this does not always work reliably.
We recommend the manual process:

  1. Export the Old Database
  2. Open phpMyAdmin on the old server.
  3. Select the database.

  4. Click Export and save the .sql file locally.

  5. Create a New Database in Plesk

  6. Create a new database in the Plesk panel. (See guide Manage Databases)

  7. Note down the database credentials.

  8. Import the Dump into Plesk

  9. Open the new database in Plesk.

  10. Click Import and upload the .sql dump file.

  11. Configure the Website

  12. Update your website configuration files (e.g. wp-config.php for WordPress) with the new database credentials.

Your website is now fully transferred to the new Plesk server.