WordPress Made Easy

WordPress is a breeze to install and use. But what if you your current hosting provider pissed you off, and now you have to move the installation to another hosting provider? There are many documents and way to do this. There are even a bunch WordPress tools to help with this. We tried a bunch of different ways and found that they get you 90% of the way there. Once your site has been moved, things still act funny, not all links work properly and even the dates of some posts get out of wack. We figured out and tested method of moving your WordPress install, seamlessly and quickly. Don’t spend weeks trying to fix your blog after you move it. Do it right the first time. This does require a little bit of technical knowledge, but we’re here to make it easy.

1. Use phpMyAdmin to backup your WordPress database.
   • Log into phpMyAdmin
   • In the Database drop down menu on the left, select your database.
   • Click on ‘Export’
   • In the EXPORT section on this page, make sure SQL is selected!
   • In the SQL section, make sure the following is checked: STRUCTURE, ADD DROP TABLE, Add AUTO_INCREMENT & Enclose table and field names with backquote
   • In the DATA section, make sure there is a check next to ‘DATA’ only. All the check boxes inside can be left blank.
   • In the SAVE AS section, put a check next to ‘SAVE AS’, then click go.
   • It will as you where on your computer to save the backup file. Make note of it, we’ll need this later!
     IMPORTANT: Make note of your database prefix. You’ll need this info later. The default prefix for WordPress is ‘wp_’.
2. Using an FTP client, connect to your OLD host, and make a copy of the entire WordPress folder. You actually only really need your themes and plugins folders, but it doesn’t hurt to get it all. This contains all the custom goodies to your site.
3. Install WordPress on your new server as if you were setting up a new site. IMPORTANT: Make sure to make your database prefix the same as your old install.
4. Go to your NEW host’s MySQL database (just created with the new WP install process), and delete the new tables from the database.
   • Log into phpMyAdmin
   • In the Database drop down menu on the left, select your database.
   • This screen shows all the database tables. Click on the red ‘X’ under the ‘ACTION’ column. Do this for all the tables.
5. In the Database drop down menu on the left, select your database.
6. Use SQLyog or phpMyAdmin to import your backup database file into the new host’s MySQL database.
7. Simply FTP all your theme files and plug-ins to your new host’s folders. The locations are exactly the same as your previous host.