Move Your WordPress Blog to a New Host in 7 Easy Steps
Some of you might have seen the announcement, but for those of you who haven’t, Cryptic Clarity moved and has a new home (plus a brand new forum!) If you’re using the latest version of WordPress (2.2.x) and are planning to move your blog to a new host, here’s what I did in 7 simple steps to help you along the way. All the tutorials I’ve found require a manual backup of your MySQL database before the move. This tutorial will show you how to backup your blogs and comments effortlessly without having to tinker with the MySQL database. The following is assumed in our example:
- Your account with your old host is still active.
- You own the domain for your blog: www.your-blog.net
- Root directory for your current blog installation: /wordpress
- You know the DNS for your new host: ns1.new-server.com, ns2.new-server.com
Ready…Set…Go!
1.Announce your move:
Put a notice on your blog to inform your readers about the move. You might want to close comment temporarily.
2.Export your blog:
Log into your WordPress. Click on „Manage“ and then „Export“. Press the „Download Export File“ button and save the .xml file at your chosen location. The file contains your posts, comments, custom fields, and categories.
3.Download files:
Use your favorite FTP/SFTP program to download the entire „wp-content“ folder in /wordpress to your hard disc.
4.Install the latest WordPress (2.2.x) on your new server:
You’ve done a WordPress installation when you first set up your blog on your old server. Now do it again on the new server. Remember to use the same root directory as on your old server for WordPress, which is /wordpress in our example. Don’t forget to make changes to your WordPress and blog addresses under “General Options”, if necessary.
5.Upload files:
Use your FTP/SFTP program to upload the entire „wp-content“ folder you’ve just downloaded to the new server to replace the „wp-content“ folder that comes with the new WordPress Installation. If asked whether or not to overwrite files on the server, answer yes. (note: come to think of it, maybe answering “no” would make much more sense)
6.Import and restore:
Still logged in at your newly installed blog? Then delete the sample blog and comment (unless you do want to keep them). Click on „Manage“ and then „Import“. You’ll see the WordPress option at bottom of the list. Click on it and choose the .xml file you exported in step 2. Press the „Upload File and Import“ button. To check if everything’s properly imported, click „post“ under „Manage“. You should see all your old posts there. If you click on „Presentation“, you’ll see your old theme under „available themes“. Click on it to make it the default theme. Finally, click on „Options“ and then „Permalinks“ to configure your Permalink structure to conform to the structure before the move. Press the „Update Permalink Structure“ button. Don’t forget to allow comments again if you’ve closed it in step 1.
7.Update your DNS record:
Your blog on the new server is now up and running, but when your visitors type www.your-blog.net in their browser, they will still be directed to your old blog on the old server. You need to change the Domain Name Server record so the world can access your new blog. Log into your domain registrar account and find the DNS option where you replace the old entries (there are most likely two of them) with ns1.new-server.com and ns2.new-server.com. It can take up to 72 hours for the DNS to propagate. What this means is that after only a few hours, some of your readers might already be accessing www.you-blog.net on your new server, which means they won’t see the announcement you wrote in step 1; most of the readers, however, will still see the announcement, for they are still accessing your old blog. As time goes by, more and more readers will be accessing your new blog instead of the old one, until eventually no one will be reading your old blog. Try this yourself: go to www.your-blog.net and see if you see the announcement you wrote in step 1. If yes, then you’re still accessing the old blog, otherwise you’re accessing the your new blog already. As mentioned earlier, it may take up to 3 days for everyone in the world – not just you! - to be able to access your new blog, so don’t take your old one down yet.
If everything looks as expected and you’ve waited for at least 3 days to make sure the announcement you wrote in step 1 no longer shows up when you point your browser to www.your-blog.net: congratulations, you’ve successfully moved your blog to your new host! You’re now safe to kiss your old host goodbye and cancel your account anytime you like.
Popularity: 73%