One of the Biggest Migration Headaches: Media Files
When people migrate a website from one platform to another, most of the attention goes toward the design and layout.
But one of the most tedious and commonly overlooked parts of a website migration is downloading and relinking media files.
This includes:
- Images
- Videos
- Icons
- Background graphics
- Downloadable files
If these files are not handled correctly, you can run into major problems later.
Many people don’t realize that when they cancel their old website builder or hosting platform, their media files are often deleted along with the website.
If your new site still references those files from the old platform, those images and videos will suddenly break.
This can lead to missing images, broken layouts, and a poor user experience.
Fortunately, there’s a much easier way to handle this when converting a website to WordPress using PressMeGPT.
Why Media Breaks After a Website Migration
Many website builders and SaaS platforms store your media files on their own infrastructure.
When you embed an image on your site, the file is often hosted on the platform’s CDN or internal storage.
For example, an image might load from a URL that looks something like this:
oldplatform.com/assets/image123.png
When you copy or recreate the website somewhere else, the page might still reference that original URL.
At first, everything appears to work fine because the image is still being served from the old platform.
But once you cancel that service, those files may be removed.
When that happens, your new website suddenly displays:
- Broken image icons
- Missing background images
- Missing videos
- Layout issues caused by missing assets
This is why downloading and relinking media is one of the most important steps in a website migration.
Unfortunately, doing this manually can be extremely time consuming.
The Traditional Way to Download Website Media
If you were migrating a site manually, you would usually have to:
- Inspect every page of the website
- Locate image URLs
- Download each file individually
- Upload them into WordPress
- Replace all external URLs with local ones
For large websites, this could mean downloading hundreds of images one by one.
Then you would still need to go back and edit the HTML or page content to replace the old URLs.
This process is tedious, error-prone, and easy to miss something.
That’s where PressMeGPT can save a huge amount of time.
How PressMeGPT Handles Media During Website Conversion
When you convert a website into a WordPress theme using PressMeGPT, the platform can automatically download media assets used on the website.
This includes images and other visual assets referenced on the page.
Instead of leaving those files hosted on the original platform, PressMeGPT allows you to package them with the theme so they can be uploaded directly into WordPress.
This ensures your new site remains fully functional even after the original website is deleted.
One Important WordPress Setting to Adjust
There is one small but important WordPress setting that can make the migration even smoother.
By default, WordPress organizes uploaded images into folders by year and month.
This creates URLs that look something like this:
example.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/image.png
While this system works well for blog uploads, it can create complications when migrating images from an existing design.
If the theme expects the images to exist at a certain path, the date-based folders may break those references.
Fortunately, this can be easily fixed.
How to Disable Date-Based Image Folders in WordPress
Before uploading your media files, you can change one simple setting.
Inside the WordPress dashboard:
- Go to Settings
- Click Media
- Find the option labeled Organize my uploads into month- and year-based folders
- Uncheck this box
- Save your changes
When this option is disabled, WordPress stores images in a single uploads folder instead of organizing them by date.
This makes it easier to migrate media from another website because the file paths remain consistent.
Uploading Your Media Files
Once you disable the date-based folder structure, uploading the media files becomes straightforward.
You can simply:
- Download the media files generated by PressMeGPT
- Open your WordPress dashboard
- Go to Media → Add New
- Upload the files
After uploading them, the theme will reference the images locally instead of pulling them from the original platform.
This means your site will continue working properly even if the previous website builder account is cancelled.
Why This Step Matters
Many website migrations fail to handle media correctly.
At first everything appears to work because the images are still loading from the old platform.
But weeks or months later, when the old account is cancelled, the images suddenly disappear.
This can cause:
- Broken pages
- Missing visuals
- Damaged branding
- Lower user trust
By downloading and hosting your media locally, you eliminate this risk.
A Faster Way to Migrate Websites
Website migrations used to involve a lot of manual work.
You had to copy layouts, rebuild pages, and download assets individually.
With modern tools like PressMeGPT, much of this process can now be automated.
PressMeGPT helps convert existing websites into WordPress themes quickly while also making it easier to manage important details like media assets.
This allows developers, freelancers, and agencies to migrate websites faster and with fewer errors.
Try PressMeGPT
If you want to convert a website into a WordPress theme and simplify the migration process, you can try PressMeGPT.
PressMeGPT allows you to:
- Convert existing websites into WordPress themes
- Refine layouts using prompts
- Export fully functional WordPress themes
- Download media assets used in the design
Visit PressMeGPT.com to create a free account and start converting websites into WordPress themes today.