A Complete Guide to Transferring Wordpress From One Server or Host to Another _ JealousBrother.com Official Blog

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How to Transfer a WordPress Blog From One Server or Host to AnotherTags:bigdump,blog, cpanel, database, import, mysql, phpmyadmin,wordpress

Posted in How To Guides on February 11th, 2009 by Ryan Kazinec | 72 Comments

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Introduction:There are numerous articles that cover the process of transferring a WordPress blog from one server or host to another

but Ive found that most of them left me asking questions after reading them. I am a very visual person and hope the

following article and images help you get your WordPress blog transferred successfully. The following article was

compiled from firsthand experience of transferring two WordPress blogs from a Godaddy hosting account to my own

dedicated linux server.

Make sure and take a side in the rivaly: Blogger vs. WordPress. Which is the better blogging CMS / Platform?

Step #1 -Backup Your WordPress Database:

Most hosting accounts include PhpMyAdmin which is what you will use to backup the WordPress database. The process rea

need to do is find PhpMyAdmin within your hosts control panel. After youve logged into PhpMyAdmin youll need to do the

Click on the database you need to back up. It will be located on the top left region of the screen.

Click on Export on the top tool bar of PhpMyAdmin.

Complete the following steps.

In the Export box make sure all of the tables are highlighted and if theyre not click on Select All1.

In the Options box make sure to select the following options in addition to the default settings. 1.) Add DR/FUNCTION 2.) Add AUTO_INCREMENT value 3.) Enclose table and field names with backquotes 4.) CoBLOB

2.

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Step #2 Transfer all of your WordPress files to the new server:

For the time being Im not going to cover this step in extreme detail because there are so many different ways this can be do

complete this task which is free. If any of you would like me to add additional information on this step of the process please l

Step #3 Create a new Database on your new server/host.

If youre using Cpanel this task is extremely simple but should be a very similar process on other control panels.

Click on MySQL database wizard

Enter a Database name. This could be wordpress or anything else youd like. Then click next step.

Enter a Username and Password. Note: The Password must be entered twice and make sure its secure. (vaThen click next step.

Select All Privileges and click next step. Thats It!

Important Note: Make sure you write down the Database Name, Username, and Password or youll havelater.

Step #4 Edit the WPCONFIG.php


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At this point you should have already copied all of your WordPress files to the new server and we now needwith the new Database information. Once in Cpanel you need to complete the following steps.

Click on File Manager.

Select Web Root and make sure show hidden files is selected(May not be necessary but better safe than

Find WPCONFIG.php within the file manager. Depending on where you copied the WordPress files on the

WordPresss root directory. (Meaning its not located in wpcontent or wpadmin, its located in the same dirOnce you locate WPCONFIG youll need to click on the mouses right button and select Edit.

You now need to alter three (possibly four) different items in the file.

Database Name1.

Username2.

Database Password3.

Database Host (If youre hosting WordPress on your own server this should be localhost but may vary depeunsure youll need to contact your administrator)

4.

Note on Charset Value: This value must match the value of your old Database. I left it at the default setteverything worked correctly but I have read that having an incorrect charset can cause compatibility issuesDatabase.

Charset Resource: The Absolute Minimum Every Software Developer Absolutely, Positively Must Know AbCharacter Sets (No Excuses!)

Save Changes to the file and youre done.

Step #5 Import your old Database tables into your newly added Database. (I

Option #1)

This is a step that caused some serious issues for me when I first tried transfering a WordPress blog. Whithout completing t

because it doesnt contain any of the tables or information from your WordPress powered website. There are a couple of opti

should very based on the size of your database backup. If youre database is larger than 10mb in size youll likely need to use



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Option #1 Using PhpMyAdmin (Databases under 10mb in size) (IMPOinformed that the size limit has been increased in recent versions of P

limit is 100mb in size.)

Follow these steps when using PhpMyAdmin to complete the import.

Click on PhpMyAdmin within Cpanel and login.

Click on the Database you created earlier. This database should have a zero next to it representing that it dthe upper left hand side of the screen.

Click on the Import tab located on the upper navigation toolbar.

Click on Browse and find the Database backup that you earlier saved to your local drive.

Click Go and let PhpMyAdmin handle the rest.

Presuming youre database backup was less than 10mb in size you should now be ready to roll.

Option #2 Using BigDump (Databases over 10mb in size)

One of the WordPress blogs I transferred required the use ofBigDump which is an amazingly useful tool.easy to use. Follow these steps if youre using BigDump to complete the import.

Create a temporary folder on your server using File Manager in Cpanel. The reccommended name for thematter.



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http://www.yourdomain.com/dump/bigdump.php) Once loaded youll see the BigDump menu and you sh

Click Start Import and let BigDump go to work.

You will see an activity page and will see a prompt below the activity page informing you when BigDump hNote: Make sure the encoding within the bigdump.php file matches that of the original database or youll likely have strang

Final Step: Dont forget about your Nameservers!

Depending on your situation you will likely need to alter your Nameservers with your domain registrar. In some situations

provided by the domain registrar as long as you make the necessary modifications on your new server/host. It should be not

nameservers earlier in the process but I refrain from doing that because of some issues I had with DNS on my server the first

In ClosingI hope you found this article helpful and if anyone would like me to add more details on any of steps in the process please le

would greatly appreciate you sharing it with others. You can use the sociable links above or share it on other networks that a

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Posted on February 11th, 2009 at 3:35 pmby: Hamdani

Posted on February 11th, 2009 at 4:50 pmby: bigkazzyry

Hamdani,Your approach is definitely the easiest and should result in your website getting safely transferred. However, Im not sure

least not free of charge. There is also a lot of people like myself who run their own dedicated machines so its up to us to

stopping by.

Posted on February 13th, 2009 at 7:35 amby: Looking For The Best WordPress Host?

[...] A Complete Guide to Transferring WordPress From One Server or Host [...]

Posted on February 15th, 2009 at 11:16 amby: Georgia Stath

You know how you tell yourself you are studying because you have your certification books opened in front of you? But yinteresting posts to read?

Yeah well, I came across yours and had to write to tell you I enjoyed it very much. I gave it the thumbs up, so more peopl

Posted on February 20th, 2009 at 4:20 amby: Ajit

This is a very good information. Thank You very much for doing this. Actually I saw this post by searching the way to find

server to another server.

So this method will help me to change the database from one server to another.

Thank You again.

Posted on April 18th, 2009 at 5:59 pmby: Parnuuna

Thank you very much for your article. I find it very scary to move your beloved website from one place to another. Im curr

p***ing my pants, because I dont want to lose anything. anyhoo thanks again for writing this how-to

Posted on April 18th, 2009 at 6:11 pmby: bigkazzyry

You are very welcome and I hope the article helps make the process less stressful. If you come across any questions I miof luck on the transfer.

Posted on April 19th, 2009 at 10:38 amby: MapleWebsites

Success! Thanks so much for posting this. I transferred a wordpress site flawlessly!

Posted on April 19th, 2009 at 10:54 amby: bigkazzyry

You are very welcome. Im glad the article helped you out.

Posted on July 19th, 2009 at 12:05 amby: mimo

Okay probably the most pathetic question everIn step 2, do I upload all the WP files such as the WP Version, Theme, Plugins?



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Posted on July 19th, 2009 at 7:19 amby: bigkazzyry

Posted on July 19th, 2009 at 2:41 pmby: mimo

Jealous Brother!!

I love you guys! Im glad I found your site. Before JealousBrother.com, I looked through other websites and it was confusi

I finally did it (I tried it last night but it didnt work due to the change in Name Servers.. no changes in Name Servers was in effect

try today and it worked! Woo hoo!

Just out of curiousity in step 2, do I have to install wordpress again? For myself, I set up WordPress after I transferred the files

Then when I was finished step 5 I couldnt log in from Step 2 (new password). I decided to give a try by using my old password

is, is it unnecessary to go through the installation process in step 2? Since once Im done with step 5, I can automatically log in as

Thanks Jealous Brothers!

Posted on July 19th, 2009 at 3:30 pmby: bigkazzyry

@ Mimo

Thank You and youre very welcome. I wrote this article after having the same problem you did in finding confusing sourc

are so many steps Ive even bookmarked the article myself as a quick reminder when the time comes for me to transfer o

In regards to your question: I may be a bit confused at what youre referring to. You shouldnt have to setup a new WordPress acc

blog up originally).

Answer me this, are you referring to step 2 of the Famous Five Minute WordPress installation or the directions in the above blog

your files to your new server/host. (This is why Im confused)

Heres what I think youre looking for: My answer would be no, you do not need to install WordPress again that was done the first t5 you have successfully imported all of your database tables into your newly created database on your new server/host. Once the

fine and exactly how you remember it.

Heres a bit of advice one of the tech guys gave me from my server company (In regards to your nameservers not changing imme

meaning your blog was visible to everyone else but you. Sometimes your local dns server(for your ISP) can cache (store informati

you can always try the following. Open Command Prompt on your pc and type: ipconfig/flushdns (Have to open the command pr

Posted on July 19th, 2009 at 4:17 pmby: mimo

Hi Jealous Brother,

Yes, I was referring to the Famous Five Min. Installation. Thanks! Now I know not to go through the installation process amade my day!

Posted on July 19th, 2009 at 4:28 pmby: bigkazzyry

You are very welcome Mimo.

Posted on October 19th, 2009 at 9:36 pmby: Spewf

Hey, can you email me back about this? I have done everything you said but the only that doesnt work are images. Indivi

galleries wont display. They show up in the media folder and in the nextgen gallery. Any ideas?

Posted on January 17th, 2010 at 11:25 amby: How to Transfer Wordpress From One Server Or Host to Another :: What is a Blo

[...] If you would like to view this article with images, click here: Article with Images [...]



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Posted on January 30th, 2010 at 3:53 amby: How to Transfer Wordpress From One Server Or Host to Another | Best info.

Posted on February 26th, 2010 at 3:28 amby: art

Hi, I have done all you said but the images like the top comments do not work. kind of stuck any help would be grateful. t

Posted on February 26th, 2010 at 6:08 amby: bigkazzyry

Art,

Another individual had a similar problem. The following is the email message I received from them once the issue had be

and Ill try and help you find a solution.

Hey, I figured it out. For some reason the new server didnt like the paths to the images. I went in and had to change the path to whttp://

I appreciate you emailing me back though!

Posted on March 12th, 2010 at 10:46 pmby: Jeff

Post transfer tip. I found I needed to goto Settings>>Miscellaneous Settings in wordpress and put in the correct upload p

message Unable to create directory .. Is its parent directory writable by the server? when uploading new pictures.

Posted on March 12th, 2010 at 10:54 pmby: bigkazzyry

Jeff,

Thank you for the information. Im sure other visitors will find it very useful.

Posted on April 16th, 2010 at 9:34 amby: Mattress Cover

Wow,its wonderful tutorial..but I havent still convince yet to do this now,maybe someday!

Thanks for this post.

Posted on July 1st, 2010 at 1:12 amby: Ultimate Social Bookmark Share Social Bookmarking

[...] of the MySQL database. This is probably the most tricky transfer but you can read up on it at: http://www.jealousbrother.com/b

This is the big one. Usually you will need to pay at close, or within a given time [...]

Posted on October 7th, 2010 at 6:40 pmby: Z.N. Singer

My phpMyadmin client stated the limit at one hundred megabytes, and successfully uploaded an eighteen megabyte file.

Anyway you should update with this information.

Posted on October 7th, 2010 at 6:59 pmby: bigkazzyry

Thank you for informing me of the changes made to PhpMyAdmin (It has been a long while since Ive needed to transfer

made). Ill edit the post to note this change.

Posted on October 28th, 2010 at 11:22 amby: Karl

Ive been reading a number of these tutorials for transferring wordpress from Local Host to Server. Im trying to decide on

suggest that your tutorial does not, is editing the database created in step #1. They have you change the paths listed in t

\\htdocs\\yoursite/wp-content/uploads to reflect the path on the new server. Is this not necessary?



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Posted on October 29th, 2010 at 6:07 pmby: admin

Posted on November 3rd, 2010 at 9:50 pmby: How to Transfer WordPress From One Server Or Host to Another | WordPress Se[...] If you would like to view this article with images, click here: Article with Images [...]

Posted on November 4th, 2010 at 12:48 amby: Ruby

Can you explain to me how to Transfer all of your WordPress files to the new server with filezilla?

Posted on November 6th, 2010 at 5:52 amby: TEO Article Arena

Thanks for a very informative article!

I was dreading transferring it over from one cpanel account to another for one of my sites and it looks like it has worked!!!Your article saved me lots of stress! I have an article website (http://teoonline.com), if you wouldnt mind registering/subm

other people too.Thanks again!

Posted on November 12th, 2010 at 11:00 pmby: Ruby

website: http://www.medicolegalreports.com.au/

I made a website for a friend and have just moved it to his host following this guideNow Im getting this Internal Server Error message when I navigate to any page EXCEPT for home. Please help.

Internal Server Error

The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.

Please contact the server administrator, [email protected] and inform them of the time the error occurred,

caused the error.

More information about this error may be available in the server error log.

Additionally, a 500 Internal Server Error error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.Apache/2.2.13 (Unix) mod_ssl/2.2.13 OpenSSL/0.9.8e-fips-rhel5 mod_bwlimited/1.4 mod_perl/2.0.4 Perl/v5.8.8 Server at http://w

Reply

Posted on November 13th, 2010 at 12:06 amby: bigkazzyry

@Ruby,

Please look at your server error log and let me know what it states. I dont have a lot to go on to help you without further i

me of .htaccess errors Ive seen in the past but without knowing the detailed information of what you did in the process of

1.) Check server error log.

2.) Verify files were transferred to the new server.

3.) Check the database to make sure it was imported correctly.

4.) Get back to me with what the server log says.

Posted on November 16th, 2010 at 12:04 amby: Ruby

Fixed by following this:

I would delete my .htaccess and create a new one in Notepad.

Open Notepad hit space bar once save file.

Upload it to your WP root and rename it .htaccess. CHMOD 666.

Update your permalinks this writes to your .htaccess.

Change CHMOD to 644 on .htaccess for security.

Posted on February 27th, 2011 at 2:05 pmby: WordPress Bloggers dot Net | Blog | How to Transfer WordPress From One Serve

[...] If you would like to view this article with images, click here: Article with Images [...]

I am not able to understand wht you are trying to say in step2do i have to copy all the files of my wordpress blog from o

other thing is thatdo i have to install the wordpress again on new server?.plz help



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Posted on October 11th, 2011 at 9:18 pmby: admin

A couple of key notes:

First, install filezilla client.

Second, acquire the ftp information needed for your server from your new host. This will include the ip address, port, and passwor

This will give you access to your new hosts file structure and then its as simple as copying the file over. However, copying files in

patient. Ill look into providing more detail tomorrow. Hope this helps.

Posted on November 1st, 2011 at 2:49 pmby: Marian

Great, that was the only tutorial that helped transfer my wordpress site without a single glitch Thanks a lot

Posted on November 5th, 2011 at 9:41 pmby: Rishi

Thanks.. this really helped me to transfer my wp fi les from old host to new host. Thanks for sharing nice tips.

Posted on January 3rd, 2012 at 3:21 pmby: J. Doe

Thanks for this infomation. But please tell me what if we have blogger blog and want to shift in wordpress. Without effecti

Posted on January 21st, 2012 at 1:58 amby: vadakkus

I have a very important question.

What is a PhpMyAdmin?

Your efforts are commendable, but I tried everything to move my site from one to another. As a very very non-techie guy,

provider (The hosting companies dont care about helping). Everyone throws around terms like phpmyadmin, htaccess, ftare by default. Sad that you never find help when you need it.

Nice writeup though. I like your style of writing.

Posted on January 21st, 2012 at 4:38 amby: Ryan Kazinec

Vadakkus,

Im sorry youre having issues with the transfer. To answer your question, PhpMyAdmin is a piece of software that adds a

a websites database. Its a very common program that is included with a lot of hosting packages. PhpMyAdmins Website

PhpMyAdmin there is usually if not always some other type of database management utility although they are not commo

PhpMyAdmin. Hope this helps.

To answer a couple of your other indirect questions.

.htaccess is s file that can be used with Apache based web servers and is VERY powerful but is equally as complicated. Even the

useless until corrected.

ftp upload / download is a file transfer protocol which is a fancy way of saying you can connect to a remote server (the server or h

home computer or personal device and add, delete, download, or edit the content from the remote server. FileZilla is a very popul

Transferring WordPress while not too difficult when you are a tech person can be a bit daunting for non-techies. I wish you the be

Posted on January 27th, 2012 at 12:48 pmby: pradeepf

thank you for the guide,i am moving my website to a new server and i am following the steps in the guide !!

You are very welcome! I hope the transfer goes smoothly.



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Posted on January 29th, 2012 at 6:08 pmby:john bulera

Posted on January 29th, 2012 at 7:16 pmby: Ryan Kazinec

You are very welcome.

Posted on February 26th, 2012 at 5:59 amby: x

that is what i was looking for, thanks

Posted on March 2nd, 2012 at 3:35 amby: Malik Rengers

Thanks Man, you are great. I was searching for this from last week.

Posted on March 28th, 2012 at 7:10 pmby: Kim

Hi,

This is great! but does it work if its being changed to another server with a different domain?

Thanks!

Posted on March 28th, 2012 at 9:37 pmby: Ryan Kazinec

Kim,Off the top of my head I do not see why this wouldnt work for a domain change (As your host and domain are specific to

have to change your domain within WordPress settings menu. If you happen across any issues let me know and Ill help

Sincerely,

Ryan Kazinec

Posted on April 10th, 2012 at 6:41 amby: Veronica Brandt

Thanks, I just copied my wordpress site over to a new host and domain and your instructions were great.For the record, I did have to use the http://codex.wordpress.org/Moving_WordPress with the Search and Replace script.

Without the Search and Replace, the login button took me back to my old domain maybe its a Buddypress thing.


Argh! before you approve my comment, now none of my pages are working. I can get the dashboard and the posts, but t

search and replace was wrong and you were right. Maybe I just had to use mydomain.com/wp-admin to log in and then g

over!


Sorry about all the posts! It was the .htaccess file it was empty. It just hadnt copied over with all the other files. Fingers

Glad you got it working Veronica! Let me know if you have any further issues. I intend on updating this post in the near fut

buddypress.



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Posted on April 10th, 2012 at 2:50 pmby: bernie

alas the sites wont load.

whats my next step and do i sti ll need to create a new database and/or play with the htaccess file etc ?

Posted on April 10th, 2012 at 3:32 pmby: Ryan Kazinec

Bernie,

Make sure and check your dns zone records within your new server. I too at one point used the copy multiple account fea

functional they did have some dns issues that still pointed to the previously used server. Look at your ip addresses listed

theyre current and correct.

As I understand it the WHM copy multiple accounts function copies files, settings, and databases so creating new databases shou

Posted on May 2nd, 2012 at 10:36 amby: Nancy

Thank you so much for this detailed article. It really helped

Posted on May 10th, 2012 at 6:34 pmby: Muhammed Sayyed

I am new in this world of WordPress and I assumed moving WordPress sites will required template installation and creati

thanks to you, it is an amazingly simple process..great joband dont be jealous of your brother..he is a good guy

Posted on June 28th, 2012 at 9:56 amby: Greg

Hi,

This is the simplest and most straight forward guide I have found on moving a wordpress site from one host to another. T

backup the database.

I was getting some errors complaining about duplicates before but after going throught the options to select when backin

uploaded on the new host fine. My site is back up now.

Posted on September 12th, 2012 at 10:50 amby: mohit sharma

awesome article, i googled a lot of sites but everywhere incomplete or short procedure given which is not helpful but u r r

makes my work very easily..

thanks for this awesome article

Posted on February 8th, 2013 at 1:11 amby: Neeraj Sharma

Please Help me i am in trouble want to transfer my blog but the new host while creating database dont allow to create Us

other way to do that manually?

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