Reverting back to a single site installation from a WordPress Network installation

[Brandon Hann]

In searching for an answer and guide to help me with this request, all I found were guides like this: How to disable multisite which all stated to just remove this line of code from wp_config.php:

define('WP_ALLOW_MULTISITE', true); 

After that, you "simply" drop the following tables:

wp_blogs
wp_blog_versions
wp_registration_log
wp_signups
wp_site
wp_sitemeta

from the database. Before I started, I not only backed up the entire database from phpMyAdmin, but I also exported a WordPress backup using the export tool. I tried all this and what I ended up with was an error that said:

No site defined on this host. If you are the owner of this site, please check Debugging a WordPress Network for help.

Screenshot:

After freaking myself out, I was able to fix the problem by putting the lines back into the config file. But I still wanted to remove the network features, so I tried it again, but this time I screwed something up. I ended up with endless loops (after reverting the .htaccess file back to default) and all sorts of other problems.

I actually gave up trying to follow the steps given and decided to do a fresh install of WordPress with the assumption that the imports would go smoothly.

I assumed wrong. When I got WordPress back up and running on a new database, naturally I lost all my theme settings and WordPress settings, so I imported the wp_options table from my old database. I had to manually move all my plugins from the backed up folder to the new location. I moved the themes. I deleted all the old network files and folders and was happy with the fresh install. I then had to reconfigure some of the plugins and widgets, but after a couple of hours, I finally got everything in place.

HOWEVER, I ended up with the problem of having no more Featured Images because the media library was EMPTY! Of course, the files were there, but WordPress didn't know this because the wp_posts table was brand new!

So I exported the old one and imported it into the new one. While the images did come back, they were not in their right places and they were quite large!! I'm not sure what I did wrong here and part of the reason why I'm posting this is in case someone happens to know an easier solution to this.

Ultimately, I ended up with a fresh WordPress install that I had to re-configure. To get the media issue fixed, I had to go into every single post by hand and re-establish the Featured Image by re-uploading the same image that existed before.

My advice, leave the network features alone...just don't use them if you want to run a single site!