When you run a demo installation and it doesn’t start (looks like it stuck at 1%), means something blocks the script running under the hood. When the script breaks, the process can’t be continued.
Potential Reasons
There are 2 main sources of the problem:
- conflict with a plugin (e.g. Bluehost plugin)
- site’s URLs (https:// vs http://) misconfiguration
Conflict With Plugins
The easiest and fastest way to check if that’s the problem in your case, is to disable all plugins and run the installation without them. Each demo will install/activate plugins it needs to work.
Site’s URLs Misconfiguration
When your site using SSL and is served under https://, make sure that the correct URL (https://your-domain.com) is set for options:
- WP Dashboard > Settings > General > Site URL
- WP Dashboard > Settings > General > WordPress URL
Additionally, if you use the www. part in the URL, please check if you load the site with it. If your site is configured to work under the URL https://www.your-domain.com, and you open it like https://your-domain.com, the URLs will mismatch and that may cause the installation problem as well. The best is to force a redirection to correct URL regardless if a user types URL with or without https:// and/or www.
There are plugins to help you with that, e.g. https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-force-ssl/