Managed WordPress – Frequently Asked Questions

We have collected some of the most common questions that customers ask about our Managed WordPress Hosting platform and housed them in one place.

• How can I access the file manager?
• How do I make a site live?
• How do I make a staging/development site?
• How do I take the staging/development site live?
• What is a stencil and how can I use it?
• How can I increase my PHP limits?
• Why didn’t my plugins update?
• I migrated my site, but I only see the default install. What’s going on?
• What cache plugin should I use to speed up my site?

1. How Can I Access the File Manager?

You can access the File manager by following the steps in this article. It will show you where to obtain your FTP and SSH credentials to log in to the server.

2. How Do I Make a Site Live?

Follow our helpful article on how to launch your site for the world to see! If you are using Cloudflare for your DNS, please note that Cloudflare needs to be paused for the issuance of the SSL. You can temporarily pause Cloudflare by:

1. Going to the Overview tab in the Cloudflare dashboard.
2. Expand the Advanced > section.
3. Click Pause.
4. Once the site is live, you can Unpause Cloudflare.

Pausing Cloudflare will cause your origin IP address to be returned by Cloudflare’s nameservers, sending traffic directly to our servers rather than through Cloudflare’s reverse proxy.
Pausing Cloudflare will allow us to install the Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate on your Managed WordPress site. Once the site is live and has been renamed then you can resume Cloudflare.

3. How do I Make a Staging/Development Site?

Creating a staging/development site can help to create a site on a newer PHP technology or produce new content without making any changes to your production site. If you would like to create a staging/development site before you make any changes to your live site, follow the steps in this article: https://help.liquidweb.com/s/article/Creating-a-Staging-Site-in-Managed-WordPress-and-Managed-Woo-Commerce-Hosting

4. How do I Take the Staging/Development Site Live?

To make your staging site the live site you will need to use our Migrate to Liquid Web Managed WordPress plugin. The plugin will take your staging site and replace your current live site with the staging site. This will take a few minutes to complete; while your files are transferring, your site will be temporarily inaccessible. To limit the downtime, you will want to migrate your site outside peak hours.

5. What is a Stencil and How Can I Use It?

A stencil will allow you to create a copy of any site you have and save it for another deployment without having to redo all the hard work you’ve put into customizing the site. Click on the following article to learn how to create a stencil site.

6. How Can I Increase My PHP Limits?

For an increase in PHP values, you will need to create a php.ini file. (Managed WordPress utilizes NGINX which does not read .htaccess files) To do so, you’ll first log in to your server with your SSH credentials. Once you are logged into the terminal you will type

cd /home/s#/html/

and replace s# with the user listed for the website.

Type:

vim .user.ini

press i for insert and then paste these values into the file:

memory_limit = 128M
post_max_size 64M
upload_max_filesize 64M
max_file_uploads 64M
max_execution_time= 300
max_input_vars = 3000
max_input_time = 3000

Type Esc, and type

:wq to save your edits and exit.

These values are just an example of what you can put — you can increase or decrease the values for what you feel is appropriate for your website.

7. Why Didn’t My Plugins Update?

If your plugins didn’t update, you will want to log in to the Managed WordPress dashboard and make sure that plugin updates are enabled. If the updates are enabled and your plugins are still not updated, please contact your Managed WordPress support team.

8. I Migrated My Site, But I Only See the Default Install. What’s Going On?

This usually happens when the PHP version is set too high for your site. You can adjust PHP versions by going into in the Managed WordPress Dashboard and under SITE DETAILS.

9. What Cache Plugin Should I Use To Speed Up My Site?

We include caching, so none are really needed, but these three plugins are the most frequently used by our customers and have seen the best results.

Free plugins:
Cache Enabler
WP-Super-Cache

Paid plugins:
WP-Rocket

Learn more about how Managed Hosting can benefit your business with our Definitive Guide to Managed Hosting.