All In One WP Migration Plugin Hack

When you want to move your website from one hosting company to another it can either be very difficult or an easy process depending on which method(s) you choose to use.

There’s a fairly easy free solution if your website is small: All In One WP Migration plugin.

But…

The All In One WP Migration plugin is not really “all in one”. When you try to import the backup file created by this plugin you’ll discover that it requires an extension. And, if your website is any bigger than 512 MB, you’ll need to pay $69 for that extension. Or will you? 

Best price for All in One WP Migration Plugin Legacy v6.77

A friend of mine, Robert, recently came to me for advice. He was moving his website from one hosting company to another using the All In One WP Migration plugin. It seemed so simple to use. It packed up his entire website into a single file which he downloaded and saved on his computer.

After he had established an account with the new hosting company he changed the DNS (Domain Name Servers) at the domain name registrar and waited several hours for the DNS change to propagate throughout the internet. 

As you know, all plugins at wordpress.org are free to use. And the developers of All In One WP Migration tout that you can bypass all upload size restrictions using their plugin.

So Robert naturally assumed that he would be able to upload the file containing his website using this free “all in one” plugin.

Imagine his horror when he discovered this:

Maximum upload file size: 32 MB. But his website was about 600 MB.

So he tapped the “get unlimited” button. 

So this “All In One” is not really “all in one”. It doesn’t work on its own. It needs an extension for the Import function to work.

Why didn’t they tell him when he was exporting his site that he needed an extension? And that the extension he needed to import his “large” (600 MB) site was going to cost $69?

He felt betrayed. And angry.

His website had been offline for several hours waiting for the DNS change to propagate. Now it seemed he would have to go through that waiting period again in order to use other backup and migration methods. Or cough up the 69 buckaroonies.

So Robert reached out to me to ask for help.

All In One WP Migration Hack

Before we go any further, I want to point out that it is legal to access and modify the source code of the free version of the plugin because, like all plugins at wordpress.org, it’s licensed as open source.

I did some research and discovered that there was a legal hack. Simply modify one line of code in the plugin and the import file size restriction could be increased. 

But it wasn’t as simple as that. The plugin’s developers had become aware of the hack and had modified the code in the updated versions of the plugin. The hack, though legal, no longer worked.

Undaunted, I looked for an earlier version of the plugin, one that had worked before and should still work now. 

At that time I was able to locate the legacy version at wordpress.org as shown in the video above.

But now you won’t be able to find the original All In One WP Migration plugin version 6.77 at wordpress.org as they’ve replaced it with a later version. And the later version can’t be hacked using the method shown here. 

So, Robert bought the legacy version of the plugin from FreeAndCheapEbooks.com for less than $10. Then he followed the instructions in the video above and was able to import his website to the new host’s servers without any further delay.

Where to change the code

Related Posts:

Move a Website from Wealthy Affiliate to Another Host 7 Steps to Move Your WordPress Website to a New Host

Share Your Opinion

Should All In One WP Migration plugin warn people when they are exporting their website that they’re probably going to need a premium extension to import it again? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.