Links on pages revert to test site url

[BYBO]

Hi Folks

I see this as a critical issue now. This new site went live 28 November 2017. Since then I have had many issues with the cornerstone editor reverting links for buttons and images back to test site url.

We have gone through the whole site twice since then and know for a fact everything as been updated on the site to the correct links.

Last week everything was good. Now many pages have the links reverted again to the test url.

Why is this happening?

It appears that your cornerstone editor tool is reverting links to test site url.

Here is link to live site https://theretreatportstephens.com.au/

This page is fine https://theretreatportstephens.com.au/
But here is a page that is not https://theretreatportstephens.com.au/about-us/policies/ Background image missing and links are from old test site url.

Unfortunately we need to work through the whole and update the links as this is a busy site and broken links is a major issue. I will leave the https://theretreatportstephens.com.au/about-us/policies/ page as it is for the next 24 hours so you can see what is going.

I am in the process of designing another major tourism site with this theme and I am extremely concerned that this is happening.

At first we thought that something we somehow missed updating the links after the site went live. But we created a document to track our work to update all links. We now now for a fact that each time we go in and make a change on a page and click save, links revert to old ones with no pattern. And we have to go back and update the links again.

Very angry about this and really have no idea why it is happening. If there is something I am doing wrong to make this happen hope you can tell me soon. Or get you to login and check it out.

Regards Claire

[BYBO]

Hi again Folks

I have done some research and I am pretty sure I know what is going on.

Last week I set up my clients booking system on the site. This meant we had to go to almost every page on the site update one of the button links - BOOK NOW button with a new url. My client did this change which is very simple to do. They have done lots of editing on the site since it went live with no issues.

It was after updating all the BOOK NOW buttons that the urls have reverted to the test site which is no longer live.

I have now updated all the links on the Policies page to the correct ones. But before I did this I copied across how the page appeared today after we updated the BOOK NOW button link to a new DRAFT Booking Page which is live https://theretreatportstephens.com.au/draft-policies-page/.

You will see on this DRAFT page that the BOOK NOW button link has been updated and is correct but all other button links reverted to the test site url and the background image is missing because it has a test site url for the image.

Now there are lots of pages with the BOOK NOW button and this issue did not happen on all of them. And as I said we cannot leave all the pages with broken links and so are updating them now. And I am not going to waste my time copying the site to my test server so you can see.

I have also deactivated WP Super Cache plugin which I am sure is not the issue but just in case.

Hope to hear from you soon regards Claire

[paul.r]

Hi Claire,

Please install this third party plugin

Better Search Replace

Then do a search and replace for all tables

Search for OLD URL and replace with your NEW URL

Don’t forget to create full back up of your site before doing this.

UpdraftPlus WordPress Backup Plugin

Thanks

[BYBO]

Hi Paul

Thanks for that but sorry does not answer the question as to why it happens in the first place.

And as I said in my email all links had already been update when I posted to this forum.

Can you please explain why this keeps happening as I now know it has happened at least 3 times.

I have installed the plugin and running it now. I also use Velvet to do the same this.

But all the links were definitely updated after test site was migrated across to make site go live.

Really hope I can find out why it is happening.

Regards Claire

[christopher]

Hi there,

We are not sure why this is happening in your case. Did you use the hosting service provider migration tool to migrate your website to a live server? If that is the case in some instances we have reports that the migration tools do not work correctly and you need to move your website manually.

The Cornerstone uses the WordPress home_url() function to determine the base URL of all links. Ans=d that is set from Settings > General as the Site URL:

Make sure that your hosting service provider does not manipulate those settings.

The other possibility is the Cache problem which might be related to your hosting service provider. Kindly contact them and ask them to purge any possible cache they might have.

And finally, there might be traces of the transient data on your database which you need to purge using the plugin below:

Transient Cleaner

Those are the possible causes that I can think of that might cause the issue.

Thank you.

[BYBO]

Hi there

Thanks heaps for the detailed reply.

No I do not use any server migration tools. It is done manually. And then I use tools to update all the URLs.

The issue for me is that all URLs were definitely updated. And so I suspect you are correct that there is transient data in the database. I will now look into this more and see what happens.

I will have another very large tourism site going live hopefully next month. I am now in the process of embedding iframes into the test site for the Zaui booking system.

Also as an aside I am starting to notice that when in cornerstone and after clicking save I have to update the edit page to see my changes.

Regards Claire

[rad]

Hi there,

Yes, you may check the transients and clean it too. And then clear your browser cache.

if still the same, you may remigrate it using All in one migration plugin, it should handle the internal URLs automatically, even the transients.

And what do you mean that you have to edit the page after saving it in cornerstone? You mean the Wordpress’s standard editor? You shouldn’t do that, and why do you have to edit it?

Thanks!