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Transferring WordPress Database

[2 Grey Star Level]

Hello,

I am moving from Hostgator to your shared cloud hosting.

Please note I didn’t switch my nameservers yet as I want to preview everything and make sure things work.

Here is what I did exactly:

1. Installed WordPress on my new Site5 account – right on IP address without switching name servers. I used Softaculous for this. Naturally new database name and user and password was assigned when doing so. These are of course different from what I used to have at Hostgator.

2. Uploaded my wp-content which I copied from my old host to Site5

3. Uploaded my database as it to the database created in Step 1.

WHAT I GOT IS:

My WordPress theme displays properly, however all pages are 404. It even displays links to all my pages and posts on that 404 (as it normally should), which means it actually connects to database (without me modifying anything).

My question is:

if it connects to database and can pull all pages and posts names correctly why it doesn’t display the actual content? What am I missing?

I know that normally you would need to modify wp-config file, but probably in the order I made it it’s different, otherwise it wouldn’t be able to connect to database at all.

Once again, I am previewing using IP address.

Thanks!

Answer #1

Figured out on my own. Thanks!

Answers Answered By: ubound [2 Grey Star Level]

Answer #2

Hello,

I am happy to hear you were able to find a solution that worked!

If you don’t mind, can you enlighten the rest of our users with the solution you used so that they can benefit from your experience?

Happy Hosting!

Answers Answered By: John at Site5 [476 Blue Star Level]

Answer #3

Most definitely John!

First of all since database itself doesn’t hold any data regarding database username and password it will work without modifying wp-config.php so you can simply make a fresh install of WordPress with new database and user name and then go to PHPMyAdmin and import your old database (the one you carried over from your old host). It will connect anyway and you don’t have to modify anything.

Second, when you are previewing WordPress on IP you may have several issues like I did:

– when trying to sign into dashboard you are redirected to your old host (if site is still there)

– having 404s instead of content

To fix this you should go to PHPMyAdmin once again and enter your preview URL instead of site URL and WordPress URL. This is found in wp-options.

Instead of http://www.yoursite.com

you should enter your IP and username, something like

http://1111.2222.3333.4444/~yourusername/

You should edit both – site URL and WordPress URL. This will allow you to preview site and use dashboard.

In case you created different WordPress admin username and password during installation, it won’t work. What works is what you have now at your old host.

The most important thing is not to forget to revert back to your site’s URL before switching name servers. It will display 404s again but once name servers resolve it will be ok.

If you do it this way there will be no downtime whatsoever during the transfer.

Answers Answered By: ubound [2 Grey Star Level]

Answer #4

Most definitely John!

First of all since database itself doesn\’t hold any data regarding database username and password it will work without modifying wp-config.php so you can simply make a fresh install of WordPress with new database and user name and then go to PHPMyAdmin and import your old database (the one you carried over from your old host). It will connect anyway and you don\’t have to modify anything.

Second, when you are previewing WordPress on IP you may have several issues like I did:

– when trying to sign into dashboard you are redirected to your old host (if site is still there)

– having 404s instead of content

To fix this you should go to PHPMyAdmin once again and enter your preview URL instead of site URL and WordPress URL. This is found in wp-options.

Instead of http://www.yoursite.com

you should enter your IP and username, something like

http://1111.2222.3333.4444/~yourusername/

You should edit both – site URL and WordPress URL. This will allow you to preview site and use dashboard.

In case you created different WordPress admin username and password during installation, it won\’t work. What works is what you have now at your old host.

The most important thing is not to forget to revert back to your site\’s URL before switching name servers. It will display 404s again but once name servers resolve it will be ok.

If you do it this way there will be no downtime whatsoever during the transfer.

Answers Answered By: ubound [2 Grey Star Level]

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