Wiped hard drive & reloaded software: how do I bring sites into DW?

[FJBergmann]

I had to wipe my hard drive and reload the software. In the past, my sites migrated automatically, but this has not happened. I have all the site files on my computer: how do I bring the sites back into Dreamweaver?

[Ben M]

Sites don't migrate automatically in any version that I am aware of.  If you have the .ste backup you can just import that.  Alternatively if you are on a Mac and have a backup of your HDD, you can go to the Library/Application Support/Adobe/Common/{version}/Sites/Site Prefs to restore your preferences.  Or in windows you can look in the registry at: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Adobe\Common\12.0\Sites

[FJBergmann]

I don't have the backup. All the HTML files were on iCloud and are now back on my computer, but Dreamweaver is empty. Do I have to enter all the info as if these were new sites?

[Nancy OShea]

Hi @FJBergmann,

Did you previously sync your site settings to the Creative Cloud?   If yes, try importing them from your Preferences > Sync Settings tab. And then restart DW.  See screenshot.

#2 Import Synced Settings

Failing that, manually create new site definitions.  And be sure to export them to STE files with FTP info as a backup.

[FJBergmann]

This did not work. It occurred to me that DW 2020 is still on the old computer I migrated from in September, with all the sites, because I hadn't erased anything yet. I created .ste files on the old computer and moved them to the new computer … but even though the sites are now listed in DW, when I open them, all I see is the list of ALL the .ste files instead of the site itself.

[Nancy OShea]

Does your new computer have the same drive structure as your old one?

Did you import the STEs or just move them from computer A to computer B? 

Import STEs from Site > Manage Sites panel.

[FJBergmann]

Well, I put the .ste files in each site folder, and that brought up all the folders and images in DW … but none of the html files! Even though I can see them in the folders with the Finder. I tried downloading them from the site, but that resulted in a duplicate file with the name followed by "2." And then I noticed that the original files on my computer did not have the same icon as the downloaded ones and tried opening one of the old ones in TextEdit, whereupon it promptly changed its icon and showed up in DW. I have no idea what's going on.

[Jon Fritz]

The .STE files are just the site settings, none of the actual .html or image files are included in those.

You need to copy the actual site files from the old machine to the new machine separately, or download them from your server once your server settings are imported from the .STE files.