Tag Archive for 'Wordpress'

The Easier Way to Move A Wordpress Blog to a New Host

The other day, I wrote about how you can move your wordpress blog to a different server/host.

Although moving your database and files is quite a foolproof way to move your script, a couple of my friends reckoned that they’d rather stay away from databases. Although phpMyAdmin is a GUI based solution, people’d rather not mess with databases at all if they could help it. Furthermore, manually moving all the files could be time consuming if you have a slow connection at home.

That is why I decided to publish this post which shows an easier way to do the same without the hassle of meddling with phpMyAdmin.

This uses the export feature provided in the wordpress dashboard.

So here’s how you move to a new host in 2 mins:

1. Login to your wordpress blog/site

2. Click on the Manage Tab and Select “Export”. Select all authors and Download the Export File.

3. Save the .xml file on your localhost. You’ll need this later when you export it back to the new server.

4. Note down your permalink, plugin and theme settings. You’ll have to manually reset them in the newer installation.

Permalink Settings

Permalink Settings

5. The export is now complete. Head off to your domain registrar and change the DNS settings to the one provided by the new host.

6. Open cPanel on the new host and create the addon domain. Use the 5 minute install <link here> or fantastico to install a new version of Wordpress.

7. Login and head off to the “Manage” tab. Select “import” and upload the .xml file that you downloaded in step 2.

8. Now you will have imported all your posts and comments to the new location. Time to tweak a few settings to make it look completely like the older version.

9. Delete the default “Hello World post”. Change the permalink settings to match those you noted in step 4.

10. You’ll also want to upload the previously used plugins to the wp-plugins folder. Upload your old theme to the wp-content folder and select it.

11. Move the wp-uploads folder.

12. Voila, your wordpress installation is complete. Your new blog looks exactly like the old one.

How To Move a Wordpress blog to a New Host

This is the Wordpress logo. Why are you pointing at it?

I recently changed my webhosting provider. Hence, I had to move all my sites from the old host to the new one. Doing this with static HTML/CSS sites is simple enough. But for a database backed script like wordpress it can turn out to be quite tricky.

I’ve heard this question being asked quite often by friends on Personal Messenger and on webmaster forums. That is why I made a step-by-step tutorial on how it is done.

1. Find out the name of the MySql database you’re using for the wordpress blog. Download this database to your localhost. If your host offers cPanel, then you can use phpMyAdmin to do this.

2. Open phpMyAdmin. Select the name of your database. Click on the “export” tab. Select all. Export them as an SQL file and save it on your PC.

3. Copy all the wordpress files and save them on your localhost. This includes all the files and folders in the directory for your domain. So you should have a bunch of files, and the wp-admin, wp-includes and wp-content directories. The image makes it clear:

4. Now change the DNS settings for your domain and point it to the nameservers of your new web host.

5. Create an addon domain (if required) with the new host and copy all the files and folders from your previous installation. Move the folders as they are. They should include the files and folders showing in the image above.

6. Now it is time to work with databases. Create a new MySql database and assign a user to it. You can do this easily from cPanel.

7. Open up the wp-config.php file from the root directory of your domain/blog. Edit the name of the database, username and password to match the new ones you just created in step 6.

8. Remember the database you downloaded way back in step 1? Time for it to be uploaded to the new server/host. Open up phpMyAdmin. Select the name of the new database you created for wordpress and click on the import tab.

This is the phpMyAdmin import tab

9. Browse to the saved .sql databse and click on Go to upload it.

10. Voila! You have moved your wordpress blog to a new host!

This may take some time, but it is the most fool-proof way to move your wordpress sites/blogs to a new hosting provider/server.