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Moving WordPress to new server, fig1

How to move WordPress site to new hosting using ManageWP

Vladimir Prelovac
,

This tutorial covers how to handle copying or moving your WordPress blog to a new server using ManageWP. The entire process should be over in couple of minutes.

First of all you will need a ManageWP account. You can sign up here for a free trial.

Then follow these simple steps.

1. Add your website to ManageWP.

2. Select the site by clicking on it in the left navigation menu, click “Backup Now” option and create a backup.

Moving WordPress to new server, fig1

3. When the backup finished, download the archive of your website

4. Go to your new host and create a new WordPress blog using CPanel/Fantastico or by asking the hosting support for help.
5. Go to your domain registrar and switch the DNS to point to the new hosting. Wait for it to propagate.
6. Using FTP program or CPanel file manager upload the previously downloaded backup archive to your new site (for example to wp-content/).
7. Go to ManageWP, remove the old site and add the new site.
8. Select clone tool and as source type in the URL of the backup file.  (for example http://yoursite.com/wp-content/backup_file_name.zip)

9. Select to overwrite the existing site and choose the site from the list below.  ManageWP will restore the content of your site on the new server.

10. Remove the backup file from your server.

That’s all.

 

Blog post updated on June 19, 2014

Vladimir Prelovac Avatar

author

Vladimir Prelovac
Vladimir is the Founder of ManageWP, and is a frequent contributor to the WordPress community – in the form of numerous plug-ins, tools, WordCamp talks and a book by the title WordPress Plugin Development.

39 responses

  1. waitingnow Avatar
    waitingnow

    is this backup including the whole database?

    Reply
  2. fp Avatar
    fp

    Great option Vladimir! Thanks, I was just looking into this. Bookmarked for later reference.

    Reply
  3. robventer Avatar
    robventer

    Hi, I tried to clone a site using ManageWP and it worked, except that the new site’s url redirects to the original site’s url.

    What’s the problem?

    Thanks!
    Rob

    Reply
  4. tchristen Avatar
    tchristen

    what is CPanel (fantastico) ???
    also, want to make sure i am doing this write. i have 3 domains & websites on 3 seperate hosts. 2 of those are moving onto the 3rd account (because it is unlimited account and the other 2 are smaller). On that 3rd host i am creating seperate folders in the root directory for each site and setting up the other 2 sites in those seperate folders. the 2 being copied over are both wordpress sites, the 3rd site is not. i did steps 1 through 3 on here for both wordpress sites now am unsure what to do….
    Can you please help!!!? Thanks!

    Reply
  5. zorem Avatar
    zorem

    Hi, thank you for a great post. it seem very simple, I just wonder what will be the steps if one wish to test the new site before changing the DNS..

    Reply
  6. stevewyman Avatar
    stevewyman

    Hi

    So th eonly issue with this proces is thatyou have to wait for the DNS to propogate. That means the site will be down for some time. As propogation is radom in timescale how would you monitor it (otehr than anualy checking every hour) to see the propogation?

    I assume this process deals with the SQLdatabase name being different?

    Would it be possibel to develop the system further so that f i wanted to move x sites from host a) to host b) it could be one process? So select sites create backup, propogate and restore all sites?

    Reply
  7. tkluysk Avatar
    tkluysk

    This kindof worked for me. All settings and content seems to be there. The front page works, but none of the posts do.

    Ie

    mysite.com/wordpress/ works

    but

    mysite.com/wordpress/mypost

    does not.

    Any idea why?

    Reply
  8. firefly Avatar
    firefly

    I have a WordPress site with multiple custom components such as a page generator that creates new pages from .csv file uploads and a .pdf generator that takes information from these pages and produces a .pdf file. Will all this along with any installed plugins be preserved when migrating to a new host per your instructions? Thank you for an impressive product and attentive support.

    Reply
  9. mathieu.clerte@freshweb.com.au Avatar
    mathieu.clerte@freshweb.com.au

    What if the source and destination websites have a different domain name :
    ex :
    mysite.mydevserver.somwhere
    to
    mysitelive.mystagingserver.somewhereelse

    Is the backup/restore system coping with this ?

    Reply
  10. mathieu.clerte@freshweb.com.au Avatar
    mathieu.clerte@freshweb.com.au

    It would be nice to be able to migrate
    – only the DB – or the files
    – only some tables
    and to choose synchronisation options (replace, insert only…)
    and how to manage table record ID conflicts (which side should have precedence)

    Thanks

    Reply
  11. Derek Avatar
    Derek

    Does this work going from standalone to multisite?

    Reply
  12. info@orgspring.com Avatar
    info@orgspring.com

    Which files does managewp recurse to change url references in these clones? I’m just looking for a list so I know which other files I’ll need to hand update the urls when cloning.

    Reply
  13. Greg Fleischaker Avatar
    Greg Fleischaker

    I’m a little confused over which files I am supposed to FTP to the new site, the entire zipped file? Or the WP-Content like in your example? Also, I keep having trouble getting FileZilla to connect, is there a trick to connecting to a domain on a shared hosting plan?

    Reply
  14. apfrij@gmail.com Avatar
    apfrij@gmail.com

    I cloned one site to another site and the new site has lots of URI problems. I used http://validator.w3.org to check. How do I begin to troubleshoot this?

    Reply
  15. apfrij@gmail.com Avatar
    apfrij@gmail.com

    I am checking the cloned site and the database folder only has an index.php file in it. could the clone process miss something?

    I have a cloned site where the admin has all of the files and the slugs have been updated to the new domain. The problem is that on the actual cloned site the links to additional pages give a error not found. Any advice? Thanks in advance.

    Reply
  16. Ken Avatar
    Ken

    I need to migrate an older v2.8.4 WP site to a new host. The old site has no sPanel. The new one has cPanel. Upgrade to the latest WP is not possible on the old one (one reason to move). I would like to move the entire old installation if a fresh latest WP won’t accept the old stuff.

    Help would be greatly appreciated since I do not know if ManageWP could do this move.

    Thanks.

    Reply
  17. RavanH Avatar
    RavanH

    Hmmm… does not seem to be possible with a free account any more ;(

    Reply
  18. travispaccoast@gmail.com Avatar
    travispaccoast@gmail.com

    Probably a really silly question… step #5 (DNS server), is this something I do on the control panel of the previous host… or the new host? If it’s the new how… what info do I enter? Sorry for the confusion.

    Reply
  19. monkeybrush@gmail.com Avatar
    monkeybrush@gmail.com

    Well glad that worked. 🙂
    Just have to check the config file as the new wp admin and password didn’t get changed but the old one from the old wp install on the other server works.

    Reply
  20. mdrmoncic@gmail.com Avatar
    mdrmoncic@gmail.com

    If I backup one site on one hosting and on domain register point name servers to new hosting and do as you explained will be all the info in wp-config.php will be updated also with new hosting details? DB host name and other

    Reply
  21. DAvis Avatar
    DAvis

    Ugghhh… this is getting frustrated for me. Every time i do it from beginning, I get a new error. I was planning to use migrateweb.com. or if you guys can help me out here.

    I am getting “Permission Denied”

    Reply
  22. سایت پروژه Avatar
    سایت پروژه

    It worked for me
    Thanks!

    Reply

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