IP Location Block can read the settings saved by IP Geo Block and convert them to the current format, so you do not rebuild your rules by hand.
Before you start
- Deactivate IP Geo Block. Do not delete it yet: its settings stay in the database while it is only deactivated, and deleting it can remove them.
- Export your current IP Location Block settings from Plugin settings as a backup.
- Note which country rule and targets you expect, so you can check the result against it.
Run the migration
- Open Settings > IP Location Block and choose Advanced.
- Go to Plugin settings and find Migrate from IP Geo Block.
- Select Load legacy settings and confirm.
- Review the loaded values in every section.
- Select Save Changes.
Nothing is written until you save, so leaving the page discards the loaded values. In the Classic view the same action is called Migrate now and it writes immediately.
When the action appears
The section is shown only while IP Geo Block settings exist in the database and this site has not migrated yet. It disappears after a successful migration. If you cannot see it, one of these is true: the settings were already migrated, IP Geo Block never saved settings on this site, or you are looking at a different site of a multisite network, since settings are stored per site.
What is imported
The converter walks your old settings through every format change in turn and fills in anything that did not exist yet with the current default. The country rule and matching rule, extra IP whitelist and blacklist, back-end and front-end targets, exceptions, login actions, response code and message, and record and privacy settings all carry over.
Some values cannot. Local database settings for GeoLite2 and IP2Location are reset, the legacy Maxmind options are dropped apart from the ASN toggle, and settings for features that no longer exist are discarded, including WP-ZEP, which was removed in 1.4.0. Settings saved by a very old IP Geo Block release are replaced with current defaults rather than converted. Your existing emergency access link is kept and not overwritten.
Review after migrating
- Provider: re-select the source and run Test connection. See Connect a geolocation provider.
- Local database settings, if you use a local provider, since paths and update schedules are reset.
- Blocking rules: the country list and matching rule.
- The blocked response, which the old plugin may have pointed at a page that no longer exists.
- Back-end targets and their exceptions.
Then confirm the result with a signed-out request and Validation logs before you trust the new configuration.
Remove the old plugin
Once the migrated settings behave as expected, delete IP Geo Block. IP Location Block does not remove its options for you. If you want them gone from the database, enable IP Geo Block’s own option to remove all settings and records at uninstallation before you delete it.