Hi Emilija

I would add the url as a hostname to your production site and then re-copy the database across.

Then when you hit the site the url is there already.

It also sounds like you have something configured to redirect you to the production site, I would check your configuration for any redirects.

Thanks

Paul

In CMS 11 we do this. If you don't have Application Insights or run a multi site installation you need to adjust.

  [InitializableModule]
  [ModuleDependency(typeof(EPiServer.Web.InitializationModule))]
  public class HostDefinitionsInitialization : IInitializableModule {
    public void Initialize(InitializationEngine context) {
      if(ServiceLocator.Current.GetInstance<IDatabaseMode>().DatabaseMode == DatabaseMode.ReadOnly) return;
      var address = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["PrimaryHost"];
      var siteDefinitionRepository = ServiceLocator.Current.GetInstance<ISiteDefinitionRepository>();
      var siteDefinition = siteDefinitionRepository.List().FirstOrDefault();

      if(siteDefinition == null) return;
      if(string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(address)) return;

      siteDefinition = siteDefinition.CreateWritableClone();
      siteDefinition.Hosts = siteDefinition.Hosts.Select(x => x.CreateWritableClone()).ToList();
      foreach (var host in siteDefinition.Hosts.Where(x => x.Type == HostDefinitionType.Primary)) {
        host.Name = address;
      }

      try {
        siteDefinitionRepository.Save(siteDefinition);
      }
      catch (Exception exception) {
        var telemetryClient = new TelemetryClient();
        telemetryClient.TrackException(exception);
      }
    }

    public void Uninitialize(InitializationEngine context) {
    }
  }

And in your web.config:

<configuration>
  ...
  <appSettings>
    <add key="PrimaryHost" value="hostname"/>
...

Make sure to have a backup of the database on your first run though.