Use a staging site
Copy live to staging, make the risky change there, then push back with control over the database.
Staging is a full copy of the site on the same stack, on a private address, closed to search engines. Use it for plugin updates, theme work and anything you would rather not test in public.
Create staging
Sites → your site → Staging → Create from live. The copy takes a few minutes, depending on the size of the uploads folder. URLs inside the database are rewritten to the staging address.
Push back to live
- Choose what to push
Files only, database only, or both. Files only is the safe default for theme and plugin changes.
- Exclude tables if needed
On a store, exclude orders, customers and sessions so the live data is not overwritten by the staging copy.
- Confirm
A restore point of live is taken automatically before the push, and it is kept for 14 days.
A full database push replaces orders placed since the copy was made. On WooCommerce sites, push files only, or exclude the order tables.
Access for developers
Staging has its own SFTP credentials, its own database and its own wp-admin. Give contractors access to staging and keep live for reviewed changes.