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I have a jetbackup file from 2017 that I took from my old site. I was trying to bring it back up. I built out an ec2 instance with a bitnami image.
I can start the restore but I get a lot of errors.
I was able to fix a few by fixing old syntax issues. I don’t think this is the best way.
What do the experts here suggest?
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Versions of WordPress from 2017 may not be compatible with modern versions of PHP. If you can dial PHP back to version 5.6 on your server then try that first.
Otherwise you might try downloading Local by Flywheel, the desktop server app, from LocalWP.com. That’s quite configurable and, since it runs on your desktop, you can access the file system, access the database (with Adminer anyway), run debuggers, etc. You might be able to piece things together that way.
If you’re trying to do a restore with the Jetpack plugin you might try downloading WordPress 4.7 (released in 2017) and a 2017 version of Jetpack. Spin those up on your ec2 or Local server. Then try your import again.
Then you’ll want/need to sort of inch your way forward. First bump your version of PHP forward to the highest mark you can without throwing errors. Then try updating WordPress core, then theme and plugins, etc.
There’s a very good chance your theme won’t be compatible with newer versions of PHP. Same for some plugins. Others will have simply disappeared. You may find you need to manually install newer versions if you can find them, or move or delete them from the your site’s theme or plugins folders.
Bottom line is it’s doable, I’ve managed it for clients in the past. But it can be pretty tedious if you can’t bill for all your time.