Dear Christina

Dear Christina,

I’ve really screwed up this time. I’m moving my WP site to a new host and I changed the DNS settings before exporting my database and WP files.

I’m unable to access the dashboard now and my old host is being uncooperative (account is active till end of the month).  Do you have any ideas for me or should I just forget it & start fresh?

Mary H Ruth-Virtual Writing & Communications Solutions

Dear Mary,

We’ve discussed this privately through email already but I wanted to share this with my readers.  Unfortunately, you are having to start from scratch with your site but, look at it as a lesson learned. One you’ll NEVER have to learn again.

For anyone else contemplating a move, here are the steps to take to ensure you do it correctly and safely.

Moving from one host to another:

First and foremost, BACKUP EVERYTHING to your own computer.

• use plugin WP-DB-Backup to have your entire database backed up and either download it to your computer or have it emailed to you. Be sure to write down the name of the database, username and password
• Using your favorite FTP program, download your entire Wordpress installation files (wp-admin, wp-content & everything else)

Place everything in a folder named “old blog”

Now, only if the domain name is changing, go back to your dashboard under “settings –>general”  you’ll need to change the listed URL to the new one. Then backup and download your database and WP installation files again. Save to a folder named “new blog”.

You can change your DNS settings at this point.

Most hosts have the “quick install” option for WP. In that case, use it to get WP set up easily on your new host.

Now you just need to get your old database files into your new database. You can do this through phpmyadmin if you have access. Please check with your hosting company to get instructions on how to upload the database files. There are too many ways to do this (depending on host) that it would take me forever to cover them all.

Generally you will need to set up a new database and name it the same as your old database. Also set user and password the same. Then upload the old database file into the new database.

Only if you changed domain name: You have to open your old database file (unzip it and open in notepad) and replace all instances of your old domain name to the new one. You can use the “find-replace” option in notepad to make sure you got them all.

When you do that and go to yourdomain.com/wp-login.php you will be told your database needs to be updated, which is fine. Run the process (very quick) and all your old posts should be available now.

Now you’ll need to sign into your new host by FTP and upload your WP installation files, overwriting the one that were installed with the “quick install”.

**If you get a “database”  error at your URL after uploading, you have to open up your wp-config.php file in notepad and make sure database name, username & password all match what is set in your new hosting account.

You’ll have to go through each setting on the dashboard to make sure all are set the way you want them. Also you’ll need to set your theme.

Guess what? You just did that all by yourself! Not as bad as you thought, huh?

~Christina