Theme & Plugin Files Addon
The Theme & Plugin Files Addon provides functionality to migrate theme and plugin files along with your database and media files as fast as FTP (if not quicker) without requiring FTP access.
The primary benefit of using this addon is that it simplifies deployments and setting up staging or development sites. If you combine this addon with the Media Files addon, you can migrate an entire website to any local development environment, staging environment, or new hosting platform.
Installing the Theme & Plugin Files Addon
To download the Theme & Plugin Files Addon, log in to My Account and head to the Downloads section of your Licenses tab. Alternatively, you can install the addons directly from your WordPress Dashboard, by navigating to Tools -> Migrate DB Pro -> Addons and click Install under “Theme & Plugin Files.”
Include Theme & Plugin Files in a Migration
During a site migration, you can now choose from four options when migrating theme and plugin files.
- All themes/plugins
- Only active themes/plugins
- Only selected themes/plugins
- All themes/plugins except those selected
All Themes/Plugins
All themes/plugins—both active and inactive—will be included in the migration. If a new plugin is installed in the future, and you run a saved migration with this option selected, it will automatically include the new plugin/theme, as well as for future migrations. This is a good option if you want to ensure no theme/plugin is ever left behind.
Only Active Themes/Plugins
Only active themes/plugins will be included in the migration while inactive themes/plugins are left behind. This is a good option when migrating a site that has accumulated unused or inactive themes/plugins over the course of time, as this can result in unnecessary data transfer during a migration.
Additionally, if a site has an active child theme, both the parent and child theme will be included in the migration when this option is selected.
Only Selected Themes/Plugins
Only themes/plugins that you select will be included in the migration while all unselected themes/plugins will be left behind. If a new theme/plugin is activated in the future, and you run a saved migration, this option will not automatically include the new item unless you revisit the migration profile and add the plugin to the selected list. This is a good option when you just need to migrate one or two specific plugins.
All Themes/Plugins Except Those Selected
Only themes/plugins that you select will be excluded from the migration while all unselected themes/plugins will be included. This is a great option when you need to exclude certain plugins that are only meant to function in certain environments. For example, you may exclude development plugins when pushing to production, or exclude caching plugins when pulling to your local environment.
Excluding Individual Files
It is also possible to exclude individual files, like git or node directories, using the .gitignore syntax. Any files you exclude in this way will also be excluded if you save and run this migration profile at a later stage.
WP-CLI
We added the Theme and Plugin files support for our CLI addon in the WP Migrate DB Pro 2.0 release. This update adds theme and plugin-related parameters to the push and pull subcommands, giving you the options to include the theme and plugin files in your CLI migrations.
wp migratedb pull https://hellfish.media \
<SECRET-KEY> \
--theme-files=make,twentytwentyone \
--plugin-files=happyforms,akismet
Don’t have a WP Migrate DB Pro license yet? The Themes and Plugin Files Addon is available for Developer licenses and higher.