How to Move Your WordPress Blog to a New Web Host

The Social Media Guide30 September 2010

152 9 minutes read

There may come a time when you will want to move your WordPress blog to a new host.

Often there may be a number of reasons why you would want to do this.. including,

poor customer service from your current web host
a need to move onto a plan that allocates more server resources, eg from a shared server > VPS or dedicated server
more competitive price
special promotion

There are quite a few factors that need to be addressed prior to, and during your move.. that can help to make this transition relatively stress free.

I have successfully completed my first move onto a new web host.. and this article is my first post since the migration.

These are steps I took, pretty much in chronological order.

Feel free to follow the same process or skip sections as you see fit.. hope fully your move will be as pain-free as mine was.

Prerequisites and Assumptions

This post is based on the following prerequisites and assumptions,

I will refer to my old web host as – old web host
I will refer to my new web host (i.e. web host I am moving to) as – new web host
You have some FTP knowledge
Both web hosts have cPanel installed on the plan selected
Familiarity with cPanel / phpMyAdmin
You have already chosen a new web host
- your new account is setup
- you have been given a new temporary URL
- you have been given your new FTP details

Initial Preparation – Old Web Host

Plug-ins

If you have a caching plug-in like W3 Total Cache or WP Super Cache on your old web host, I would recommend deactivating > then deleting it.

But before you do this, make sure you take screenshots of all your settings.. to make the installation on your new web host easier.

You probably don’t need to do this, but it just eliminates an extra variable (ie with cached pages) when setting up on your new web host. Better to be safe than sorry.

You should also disable and delete all other non-essential plug-ins.

Make sure you take screenshots of any plug-in settings before deleting!

Backup using cPanel

Backup EVERYTHING! I can’t stress this enough.

Using cPanel on your old web host you should perform a,

Full site backup
Home directory backup
MySQL database backup
Email backup (forwarders and aliases)

Save these backups somewhere on your local hard drive.

If something goes wrong, you can always revert back to these backup copies!

Backup using FTP

Once you have performed these backups using cPanel, you also need to backup your entire site’s structure (folder, files, permissions) using FTP.

This may take a while depending on the size of your site.

Save this backup of your site’s structure somewhere on your local hard drive.

Database

You need to find out the database name, user and password of the database of your old web host.

You can find this in the wp_config.php file that you have just backed up.

The location of this file is listed further down this article.

Create a New Database – New Web Host

The first thing you need to do is create a new database on your new web host.

Using the temporary URL your new web host has provided you, log in to the cPanel of your new account and click on MySQL Databases,

You will then need to,

Create new database
Add a new user
Add new user to new database

Take note of these details as you will need them again shortly.

Updating Old Database Details with New Database Details

You now need to assign the details of this newly created database name, user and password.. to some files that you backed up earlier (from you old web host) on your hard drive.

wp_config.php

The wp_config.php file needs to be updated with the details of the new database created on your new web host.

Go to your local backup copy that you FTP’d earlier and find the file wp_config.php located,

/wp-config.php
/public_html/wp-config.php
/public_html/wp-config.WPTunerFinal.php (you may/may not have this file)
/public_html/wp-config.WPTunerOrig.php (you may/may not have this file)

Open each of these files using a text editor like NotePad++.. and look for the database name, user and password,

Now replace each one with the details of the new database that you created on your new web host.

When you have added in the new database details, save each file.

MySQL database

With the MySQL database backup you did earlier.. you now need to find all instances of your old database name, user and password and REPLACE them with your new database details.

To do this you will need to unzip your backed up database.. then open it with a text editor like Notepad++.

Using the Find and Replace (Control + F) function.. you will need to,

Find <old database name> and REPLACE it with <new database name>
Find <old database user> and REPLACE it with <new database user>
Find <old database password> and REPLACE it with <new database password>

Then click on <Save> to save this file with your new database details.

The Big Move – Migrating All Your Files

Now that all of the prep work is done, you need to import/transfer these files across to your new web host.

Import Database

You need to import the database that you have just modified (on your hard drive) with the new details.

Log in to phpMyAdmin on your new web host, click on Import > select the database on your hard drive to import.. then click on <Go>,

If your database is very large (> 50MB), you may have to get assistance from your new web host to upload/import.

Import Email

Upload the backup copies of your email forwarders and aliases by clicking on Backups > Restore (via cPanel).

Upload Site

Now upload the backup copy of your entire site (all folders and files) to your new web host via FTP.

Depending on the size of your site this may take some time.. go and grab a cup of coffee.

Configuration – Getting your New Site Ready

Now that you have uploaded your database and site’s files and folders to your new web host.. there is still some configuration to do.

You now have two sites.. your live site.. which still sits on your old web host.. and the site you are migrating to, which sits on your new web host.

If you browse to the temporary URL given to you by your web host, in my case http://203.123.59.225/~thesocia/ you will notice that your homepage still does not show up.

That is because your database (on your new web host) still thinks your homepage is your live homepage.. when in actual fact, the homepage you really want, is your temporary URL.

wp_options

You need to edit a couple rows within the wp_options table and tell your new web host that your homepage is now your temporary URL.. and not your current live URL.

That way you can may changes and work on your new site.. prior to going live.

To do this go to your phpMyAdmin > Select your Database > check the wp_options row > select browse,

Look for the siteurl row..

This row should have the URL of your website –> change this to your new web host’s temporary URL,

Look for the home row..

This row should also have the URL of your website –> change this to your new web host’s temporary URL,

These changes tell your database to look at the temporary URL, instead of your live URL.

You can now work on getting your new site up to speed..

Permalinks

Once you have uploaded your database and entire site.. go to your homepage (temporary URL) and click on any link,

You will most probably get an error appearing similar to,

If that is the case you need to ‘toggle’ your permalinks.

Under Settings, click on Permalinks,

Your permalink settings will now be displayed,

Now select a different permalink setting.. then click <Save Changes>,

Now toggle back to your original permalink settings.. then click on <Save Changes>,

Your post should now display,