Sync moves the database and files between two sites that both run DevKit 3.0 or later. Typical use: pull production down to staging, or push a finished staging site live. One site issues a key, the other pastes it, and from then on the second site can pull from or push to the first.
1. Get the key from the other site
On the site you want to reach, open Sync → This Site's Key. DevKit shows a key starting with dk1.. Copy it.
The key names the site and carries a secret, so treat it like a password. Anyone who has it can copy that site's database and files, and a push can overwrite them.
Regenerate Key makes a new one. Every site that pasted the old key loses access at once, and it is the only way to revoke a key you have shared.
2. Paste it on this site
On the site you are working from, open Sync → Connect, paste the key into Connection key and save. Test connection checks that the other site answers.
A site holds one connection at a time. Forget Connection deletes the stored key from this site only. Nothing changes on the other site.
If either site is reached over plain http://, DevKit warns you: the key and all the data would cross the network unencrypted. Use https:// on both ends.
3. Pull or push
Open the Pull or Push tab:
- Pull copies the database and files from the connected site to this one.
- Push copies them from this site to the connected one.
Choose what to include:
- Database. On the Tables tab, tables you leave unticked are not touched. On the Content tab you can sync individual post types instead: content is added and updated, never deleted, and the attachments it uses come with it. For media you choose whether to copy the files and Media Library entries across, or leave them linked to the other site.
- Files. Uploads, plugins and themes. Files are added and updated; nothing is deleted.
Before anything is replaced, DevKit takes a safety backup of the site being overwritten. URLs in the copied database are rewritten to the receiving site's address. When the database is replaced, your current user is re-created so you stay logged in.
Confirm with Pull and overwrite or Push and overwrite. The sync runs on the server, so you can close the tab and come back to it later on the same screen.
If something goes wrong
- Cancel Sync stops the run. Anything already copied stays in place, and the safety backup is not touched.
- If you cancel while the database is being imported, the database may be only half restored. Restore the safety backup from Backup.
- "A sync or restore is already running there" means the other site is busy. Wait for it to finish, then try again.