Moving Hosts

[Ray Wong]

I’m in the process of transition my wordpress site to a new server. My domain name has already been moved to the new server, now I’m trying to move all the wordpress files over. Do I simply just download everything off of the old server and upload as is onto the new one? Or is there something in the wordpress coding that’s linked to the old server?

Thanks,
Ray

[Bill Robbins]

Hi Ray,

Very good question there. You will want to download the files from your old server and upload them to the new one. You’ll also need to export the database from your old server and import it into one on the new server. WordPress stores its pages, posts, and other content in a database instead of individual files that can be downloaded and moved.

There are a few articles you might find helpful on this:

http://www.wpexplorer.com/migrating-wordpress-website/
https://codex.wordpress.org/Moving_WordPress
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2013/04/moving-wordpress-website/
http://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-move-wordpress-to-a-new-host-or-server-with-no-downtime/
http://code.tutsplus.com/tutorials/moving-wordpress-moving-your-site-manually–cms-22770

If you have any questions or trouble, let me know.

Thanks,
Bill

[Ray Wong]

Thanks Bill. I took a look at the tutorials. I think I’ve made it worse. I initially tried to use the web hosts 3rd party word press installation, but it just seems to create its own databases and admin logins. So I wiped it and just tried to do a straight copy of all the wordpress files and content files from the old server onto the new one, since the url is exactly the same, hoping everything would link up. I created a database with the exact same name and user credentials as the old one and imported the old database as well. I reconfigured the wp-config.php file to point to the new database on the new server. But it can’t seem to find it. The more I tinker with it, now there’s an error running wordpress itself. Is there another file I need to be reconfiguring as well?

Thanks,
Ray

[Bill Robbins]

Ray,

Sorry for the trouble there moving the site. It can be quite a hassle to move a WordPress site, especially the first few times you try it.

Here’s another way that might be simpler. In your current WordPress site, go to the tools menu and select export. Use the tool there to export the content from your site. Then use the WordPress installer on your new host to set up the new WordPress site.

Install your theme and any plugins that you’ll be needing. Then go to the Tools section of your new dashboard and click on Import. Follow the prompts there to import the file you downloaded from your previous host.

That will move your pages, posts, menus and any content like that over. It won’t move widgets. There is a plugin called Widget Importer/Exporter (https://wordpress.org/plugins/widget-importer-exporter/) that will handle that for you.

The Elite theme also has a theme options export feature. It’s in the appearance section of your WordPress dashboard. You can make a backup of the options on your current site and import them into the new one with it.

Another option would be to use a backup plugin. Some of those like Backup Buddy (https://ithemes.com/purchase/backupbuddy/) have an import tool to handle moves.

Let me know how it goes,
Bill

[Ray Wong]

Thanks Bill. Not sure if it’s because the url is already linking to the new server, but when I try to log in to word press in the old server, it jumps to the new wordpress site which doesn’t work.

Right now it keeps forcing me to re-install wordpress and create a new admin user. For some reason it doesn’t load the information in the new database where I’ve imported the original sql. If I follow the instructions to install wordpress, it just adds on a whole slew of new generic tables to the database I’m pointing to.
This is what happens. http://www.burntgrassmovie.com

The old site still works if you go this physical address http://www.riceandbeansmedia.ca/burntgrass

I appreciate all your help and insights Bill.

Best,
Ray

[Bill Robbins]

Gotcha. Here’s what I would do. Complete the installation of a clean WordPress site on the new server. Just take it to the point where you can log into the admin.

Then in your new web host’s control panel, go to the myPHPAdmin section and drop all the tables in the database for this installation. Import the tables from your old server there.

By completing the installation on the new server before importing, WordPress should have the credentials in the wp-config file set properly. All you would need then is your database.

After that, delete out the wp-content folder on the new server and replace it with the wp-content from your old one.

See how that works for you.

Let me know how it goes,
Bill

[Ray Wong]

Thanks Bill I’ll try that! Before I import the tables into the new database, do I need to edit the original database sql export to change anything that’s pointing to the old server, one of the tutorials you sent was saying to do that.

Much appreciated.

Thanks,
Ray

[Bill Robbins]

I wouldn’t make any changes to the database first. Since the URL is the same, go with that to start with. You may need to change a server path or two, but you may not. Try the import first and then go from there.

Bill

[Ray Wong]

Thanks Bill. I tried this, but I keeps redirecting me to
http://www.burntgrassmovie.com/wp-admin/install.php

[Ray Wong]

Am I perhaps exporting the original database the wrong way or in the wrong format?

[Ray Wong]

I just tried setting up a default page with the Elite Template. It loads fine.
Then I tried exporting that. Then clearing the tables and importing back in and it restores the page fine. Its always when I bring in the actual database export from the original burntgrassmovie.com that it doesn’t seem to recognize. Is there a compatibility issue with the different wordpress versions?

[Bill Robbins]

Hey Ray,

It could be that the table prefix is different in the original site from the fresh one. If you’ll look in the original wp-config.php file it will say what the prefix is. The default is “wp_” but it can be set to anything. Make sure that the new server has the same prefix as the old. That’s one thing to check.

Bill

[Ray Wong]

Thanks Bill.

The original site wp-config.php says:
$table_prefix = ‘wp_uuuo_’;

The new one says:
$table_prefix = ‘wp_wnfz_’;

Thanks,
Ray

[Bill Robbins]

That’s likely the culprit then. Change the new one to be like the old and the new site should be able to pick up the old one’s content. With different prefixes, for WordPress it’s just about like they are in completely different databases. You can actually run multiple WordPress installations from the same database by having different prefixes.

[Ray Wong]

Well that solved it! It was just “wp_” on it’s own. I just matched whatever the prefix was in names of the tables after I imported the original database.

Thanks so much for helping me solve this one for the great support as always. Much appreciated Bill.

Best,
Ray

[Bill Robbins]

I’m happy that everything is moved over and working now Ray. Let me know if you need anything else.

Take care,
Bill

[Author]

Posts