Proper approach to moving complete site from one domain to another AND preserve widgets

Question

I consider myself fairly versed in this matter, however I've recently had a rash of issues when moving sites. I am able to successfully move the site, edit wp-config.php, move the database, etc.

Once I've moved the database, I then execute these queries:

UPDATE wp_options SET option_value = replace(option_value, 'http://olddomain.com', 'http://newdomain.com');
UPDATE wp_posts SET guid = replace(guid, 'http://olddomain.com','http://newdomain.com');
UPDATE wp_posts SET post_content = replace(post_content, 'http://olddomain.com', 'http://newdomain.com');
UPDATE wp_postmeta SET meta_value = replace(meta_value, 'http://olddomain.com', 'http://newdomain.com');

This correctly updates all of my links, image references, etc. - HOWEVER I end up with a different problem:

What happens is that some widgets break (examples are the WP Text Widget, as well as the add-on widget WYSIWYG Widget). Completely. As in the widget does not appear under the sidebar any longer, and I have to completely reconstruct them (the plugins are fine, it's just the widget disappears from the sidebars).

I've searched around WP-SO, and I've seen comments that warn against this method of updating the db, but what I'd like to know is if there is a way to resolve this, and what that way is.

Answer 1

There are some instances of serialized data in the database, notably in things like widget options, that become invalidated if you do a blind search-and-replace without accounting for different string lengths. You might try a tool like this one to do a search and replace that also handles serialized data: https://interconnectit.com/products/search-and-replace-for-wordpress-databases/