We made iThemes Sync to save you time and hassle in managing multiple WordPress sites. With Sync, you can manage all of your WordPress sites from one convenient dashboard. Get started with the Sync free trial.
There are two easy ways to set up your sites in Sync:
- Use Sync’s “Add Site” option after logging in to the Sync dashboard
- Manually install the Sync plugin on all your WordPress sites
How to Add Sites From the Sync Dashboard
1. Log in to the Sync dashboard using your iThemes username and password. Bookmark https://sync.ithemes.com for future use.
2. Once you log into the Sync dashboard, you will be presented with three different methods to add your first site. Click on the Connect Site From Sync card.
3. Enter the site URL and the credentials of the site’s admin user. You will also have the option to automatically add the site to Uptime Monitoring and creating a monthly report schedule.
4. After Sync completes the authentication process, your site will show as connected on the Sync dashboard.
To add more sites to Sync in the future, you can always use the Add Site button from the Home tab in the upper right corner of the screen.
How to Manually Install the Sync Plugin
If you have any issues adding your sites to Sync from the Add Site option in the Sync dashboard, you can manually upload the Sync plugin to your WordPress site.
1. To get started, log into the Sync dashboard using your iThemes username and password.
2. From the Sync dashboard, click the Connect Site From WordPress Card.
3. On the next page, click the Download Sync Plugin button.
4. Log into the WordPress site you want to connect to Sync. Now, navigate to the site’s Add Plugins page and click the Upload Plugin button.
5. Next, Install and Activate the Sync plugin.
6. After activating iThemes Sync, you’ll see the prompt to Set Up Sync.
7. On the iThemes Sync Settings page, enter your iThemes username and password and click Sync.
You’ll then see the iThemes Sync page where you can manage your Synced sites or add additional users. Adding additional users is helpful if more than one person will be managing updates for this site.
Managing Your Synced Sites – The Sync Dashboard
From the Sync page, click Go Manage Your Synced Sites to return to your Sync dashboard. You can also access the Sync dashboard directly here. You’ll now see your synced sites here.
Click the arrow on the right to expand the Quick Look. The Quick Look offers an overview of all available updates for that particular Synced site. Click Update to run the plugin or theme update. You’ll receive an Updated! notice when Sync has finished the update.
Click the URL for any of your Synced sites to view the Site Overview.
From the Site Overview, you can manage the site’s security, backups, updates, users, posts & pages, comments WordPress settings, and connect to Google Analytics and Search Console.
A Quick Note on Enabling Theme & Plugin Updates for Your iThemes Products
To receive updates, you will need to license your iThemes products.
To add licenses to your iThemes themes and plugins, log in to your WordPress site and visit Settings > iThemes Licensing.
In the Unlicensed Products section, license these products by entering your iThemes username and password. For more info on licensing your iThemes products, visit this tutorial.
Once you’ve added licenses to your iThemes products (if applicable), you’re ready to get started with Sync.
Support
If you have questions or need help, visit the iThemes Help Center. Our team of moderators will be happy to help out.
Feature Requests & iThemes Sync Roadmap
We would love your feedback on how we can improve iThemes Sync to give you the best experience for efficiently managing your WordPress sites from one location, so visit the iThemes Sync feature request page to send us your ideas.
Kristen has been writing tutorials to help WordPress users since 2011. As marketing director here at iThemes, she’s dedicated to helping you find the best ways to build, manage, and maintain effective WordPress websites. Kristen also enjoys journaling (check out her side project, The Transformation Year!), hiking and camping, step aerobics, cooking, and daily adventures with her family, hoping to live a more present life.
THE Ultimate Plugin !
Really easy to use, working perfectly, etc.
Thank you for this plug !
This is the app I have been wanting for a long, long time!!!
iThemes rock!
I would like to see the sites for the developers to be higher than 10 sites. Maybe 100 would be a good value to set.
Hey Stephen, we’re working on rolling the upper level tiers out very soon and will be including a 100-site plan. 🙂
Does that new feature for integration of Sync, BackupBuddy and Security intended to work with MultiSite install? I see BackupBuddy section in there but Security tab is empty.
sync will not update nggallery PRO
by the was GREAT GREAT GREAT PRODUCT
I’m setting up my first website at Sync.iThemes.com and I get this, then it hangs:
Testing connection to http://mydomain.com
Username/password to my site is correct. Any ideas what the issue is?
Thanks!
Ive renamed wp-admin and wp-login using iThemes. iThemes sync tries to use wp-login.php
How do I get add a site to sync?
Do i have to go back to the defaults and try and add it then?
Hi Ravi, try the manual upload method. Download the Sync plugin and then install and activate it on your site. Sync will then prompt you to finalize credentials to sync the site from within your WordPress dashboard.
Hi,
The host I’m using for a particular site has a .htaccess level username/pass login as well as the normal wp-admin login (the site was targeted by registration spammers or admin login hackers prior to my installation of iThemes Security, and that’s how they handled it). Is there a way to add it to my list of Sync sites, and if so, how?
I’ve tried from both outside the site and by installing and activating the site manually. No go so far.
Thanks.
Hi Bill, our support team is ready to help out in more detail from the Sync support forum, here: http://ithemes.com/forum/forum/220-sync/ (to view this page, you’ll need to log in with your iThemes username and password).
Have 7 sites working nicely with sync. Tried to set up #8 today and it will not connect with it. Tried both methods of connecting (manual and from sync)
BTW, your link to the support forum for Sync both here and from within Sync is dead. And signing in to your forum using my ithemes credentials doesn’t work, either. 🙁
Hi Jeff, if you’re having issues signing into the forum, please email [email protected] ithemes.com. We can verify your login info from there. Once we get you signed back into the forum (that page looks like a 404, but it will be visible once you’ve signed in), our support team will be able to help you with the authentication issues.
Whenever I try to add my WordPress websites from the homepage of “Sync” I get the following message:
“ERROR: The username and password you entered could not be authenticated.”
However, I have checked multiple times and both my username and password are correct. At least they are the exact same username and password that I use to log on to WordPress with.
Without iThemes accepting my username and password, I cannot even get started on backing up my site. I need someone to help me resolve this problem.
Hi Matthew, sorry you’re having issues. You can try the manual method of installing the Sync plugin and authenticating it from the WordPress dashboard instead of trying to add a site from the Sync dashboard (see Step 1 of this tutorial). As far as backing up your site, you can also do this from the WordPress dashboard (I’m assuming you’re using our BackupBuddy plugin). From the BackupBuddy menu, just click the Backups page. If you’re still having issues, our support team can help you out in more detail from the Sync forum. You’ll be able to view this forum page once you sign in using your iThemes username and password. Also note Sync only works with self-hosted versions of WordPress, so not on sites running on WordPress.com.
Is there an easy way to “hide” the presence of the synch plugin on managed sites. My client sites “tend to meddle” then ask for help to sort it out…
Hi John, it’s really easy to hide the Sync plugin. After you sign in to your Sync dashboard, click the settings gear next to any site in your list. From that menu, you’ll see the “Hide Sync” option.