Antigua Web Solutions Blog

If you ever need to move your WordPress blog (as I had to do recently from Bluehost to Hostgator!) here are the steps to take to make it go smoothly.

On Your Old Hosting Account

In phpMyadmin click on the database for your blog then export and save the database to your hard drive

In your FTP programme save your theme, the plugin folder and the uploads folder to your hard drive

(these are usually the only files that have been added to or changed - if you have made any other changes you’ll have to save the changed files as well)

The next steps are different depending on whether you already have another hosting account or are starting a new one.

If You Are Starting a New Hosting Account

If you are starting a new hosting account set it up with your blog’s domain name

Then change the nameservers for your blog domain to point to your new server - for a new hosting account the nameservers will be emailed to you or you can find them in the sidebar of your cpanel

If you already have a Hosting Account

Change the nameservers first then add the blog’s domain address as an addon domain - In this case a new folder will be made with a name you choose

At Your New Hosting Account

Make a new database and assign a user and password to the database

Import the saved database to the new database

On the Cpanel find Fantastico if your host offers it and make a new installation of WordPress for the blog’s domain - If there is no Fantastico you’ll have to upload the WordPress files and install it yourself

Now you need to change the wp-config file to point to the new database instead of the default one created by Fantastico

In your FTP client save the wp-config file to your hard drive - for a new hosting account this will be in public_html for an addon domain look for the folder you made when you added the domain

Open up the wp-config file and change the ‘DB_NAME’, ‘DB_USER’ and DB_PASSWORD for the ones you made earlier. The part to change looks like this

// ** MySQL settings - You can get this info from your web host ** //
/** The name of the database for WordPress */
define(’DB_NAME’, ‘xxx’);

/** MySQL database username */
define(’DB_USER’, ‘xxx’);

/** MySQL database password */
define(’DB_PASSWORD’, ‘xxxx’);

/** MySQL hostname */
define(’DB_HOST’, ‘localhost’);

Save it and upload it to your server

Now you need to replace the plugins and uploads directory on the server with the ones you saved earlier. Also upload your theme to the themes folder

You’ll need to wait a while for propagation of the nameservers but when they are changed you should see your blog on the new server