How To Migrate A WordPress Blog To New Server

It might be a tough job to migrate a wordpress blog, if you are new to websites and blogging. I myself was really frustrated when I first had to migrate my blog to a new server. But when done I was like its a really easy job to do :). There are fews things that you have to keep in mind while doing a migrate. In this article I will tell you what things you must have before starting the migrating process i.e backups and will guide you about the process in 3 easy to follow steps. Will try to include images.

Note : You can also do a clean new wordpress install and then import your database and other files like theme and plugins but the procedure I will be talking about is much more easier and less complecated.

Things you must have before migrating

  • New servers control panel access
  • Database for your blog (Name can be different from the previous one, you can get this by using the export function of phpmyadmin)
  • Database login details and hostname (hostname generally localhost)
  • Database backup
  • Home directory files backup

Now lets get started with the process.

Step 1 : Upload home directory files to new server.

For doing this I would say to archive all you files into a zip file and upload it to the your cpanel and then use cpanel’s extract feature to extract it. After extracting there will be a new folder with the name of archive just open that folder select all the files and move then to the root or one level up.

Step 2 : Open the new empty database using phpmyadmin and use its import function to import your database.

Go to your cpanel and find phpmyadmin it will be under databases column. Click on it, it will open up in a new tab. After that from the sidebar choose you newly created database. After that there will be a tab saying import click on it to import your database.

You are almost done now.

Step 3 : Change the database login details in wp-config file

Browse to wp-config.php file in the file manager, select it and click on edit. There you have to change 4 fields.
hostname, database username, database password, database name.

Code in the file will look something like this

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

/** MySQL database username */
define('DB_USER', 'new database username');

/** MySQL database password */
define('DB_PASSWORD', 'new database password');

/** MySQL hostname */
define('DB_HOST', 'localhost');

There you go, you now just need to change your nameservers to shift your blog to the new server. You might loose some comments if your blog is too active because it usually takes 4-5 hrs for nameserver propagation (they say upto 48 hrs).

26 thoughts on “How To Migrate A WordPress Blog To New Server”

  1. Great tutorial. I have done this sometime back. However do you have any idea about moving a mulitsite wordpress site ?

    Reply
  2. Glad to know its helping out people and people are really making use of it. Thanks for all your comments 🙂

    Reply
  3. This is very good tutorial, Thanks dear keep your good work , as i am also planning to migrate it on hostgator , This will help me a lot.

    Reply
  4. My hosting pkg is near to end and thinking to migrate to another one. Thanks i will remember these tips.

    Reply
  5. bookmarked this post.. soon I am going to migrate my webhost.. any suggestions for the good webhost…???

    Reply
  6. Nice tutorial on migrating the blog to new server. I did this one a few months ago (first time) and it took me quite a while to successfully migrate to my new server…

    I thing I think is critical is to back up your blog weekly (or daily if you blog daily). Else, it is a real pain when something bad happen to your server…

    Cheers,
    Ming

    Reply
  7. Thanks for sharing this all important info!!!!!!

    You have awesome technique to teach these all things which can prove very useful for all newbie bloggers.

    Once again thanks for this.

    Reply
  8. Initially, it will guide you the 3 step process on here 🙂 Thanks a lot for sharing your post on here 🙂

    Reply
  9. Great simple tutorial. Although it's simple, but it explains well. Migrating a WordPress blog to a new server is not that difficult, right? 🙂

    Reply
  10. Yup, it is not to hard to migrate to a new server but a single mistake can increase a work load. But this is nicely explain tutorial. Will a great help for new one's.

    Reply

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