Can I begin to modify admin files while awating domain transfer?

Did you follow the instructions for moving a blog? It looks like you are changing domain names? But haven’t changed the URL in wp_options? I can’t quite tell. Maybe you are just changing hosts but not domain names? It also looks like you might be creating a brand spanking new blog but if that is the case I can’t figure out why ‘the blog looks for it on the ‘old/other’ hosted site and domain server’. I guess I’m confused.

If you are changing/creating a domain, accessing the blog via the new domain name will be unreliable for a day or two but you should be able to access the files via IP address or other URL given you by your host.

Hi Thank you. Let me clarify:

I’m taking over a site and moving the domain and the hosting to my own account. I won’t be using any of the old files over there, and I don’t want to create the new blog on the old server only to have to move it.

I’m awaiting the ‘losing registrar’ to complete the transfer. I will be starting ‘clean’ with all the new files on the new hosted account. I wanted to get a jump on it by modifying the files so they would be ready to go when the domain is pointed to my nameservers.

When I, for instance, put in the url name on my hosting account (i.e., the subfolder location where the new hosted files are residing) – of ‘index.php’ – it comes up with the blank, new raw default blog page. But I cannot log in as admin (it goes to the ‘other/still existing’ domain location to look for the admin.php file. Of course, it’s not there at the old place. Everything is being driven based on ‘where’ the domain is at the current moment.

I hope this is more clear.

Ok.

You are changing web hosts but are you changing the domain name or just hosting the old domain name on a different server?

I won’t be using any of the old files over there…

Will you be using the old database? It seems like you are– you have to mean something by ‘taking over the site’. If this is the case there are things in wp_options that you need to change. The link I posted about moving a blog explains what and how.

If you are keeping the old domain name and moving to a new host, you may have to wait for the DNS servers to settled down before you can reliably access the database. The problem is that some DNS servers still have the domain name listed at the old servers, so that is where you go.

There is no old database. The old plain html website will be superseded by the new site I’m designing. So I wanted to keep the old html site in place, on that server – and work on my fresh new stuff and have it all ready when I am able to point the domain’s nameservers to my hosting account. It wouldn’t even be a rush, but the newspaper ads are coming out tomorrow and the new site has to be ready if at all possible.

What I mean by taking over the site is I am now the webmaster. We are discarding the old html site entirely. Domain registrar will now be on my account. Old hosting will end and old site will die. New hosting + new blog will take effect.

I’m trying to get a head start on editing the new blog; but I cannot access the admin file – it looks at the ‘other server’ where the domain is still pointing to and expects to find the admin file at the same location the domain is pointing too (naturally) – and therefore gives the ‘file not found’ error message.

Obviously when the domain transfer process is complete this will be moot – but I wanted to avoid the down time plus having the public view my work as I make modifications and tests.

*OR* can I rename the index.php file ‘temporarily’ to keep outsider eyes off it? I was thinking the blog wouldn’t work at all if I renamed the index.php file.

PS – I have access to the old site (which is still active) as well as the new one. I don’t want to put the new blog on the soon-to-be-defunct hosting account. And I want the old html site to stay up until the new blog is ready on the new hosting account. Tomorrow is the 5th day after the domain transfer was initiated.

Before I tried it, I thought I could simply accomplish this goal by typing in the admin file name at its current location. But it’s not working.

Hope this info helps someone to help me!

The blog files are in place, and I can pull up the blank blog home page online with the new title here:

https://thecomputercat.com/TaterPatchPlayers/index.php

So when I click on the log-in, it tries to access the appropriate admin file(s) on the currently hosted html site (which someone else made, BTW) at the nameserver where the domain is currently pointing (pending transfer completion).

That URL for that ‘login’ link is ultimately generated by a WP function called site_url(). site_url() gets the site address by calling get_option('siteurl') which is essentially a database call to the wp_options table. What this suggests to me is that you have a bad value in your database. You’ll have to reset it manually, or at least take a look at the DB and prove me wrong.

You don’t want to rename your index.php. That will break things. True, no one could see the site but neither could you. Can you password protect the directory?

The entire issue should self-correct once the pending domain transfer is complete and I can re-point the nameservers. There aren’t any mistakes per se or bad values. I just have the blog files on one server separated from the actual domain which is, for another couple of days, on another server.

I was hoping for a workaround that would allow me to begin working on the blog ‘before’ I have the domain in my control. The taterpatchplayers.org url is elsewhere from the blog files, in other words.

(I’m used to writing html and css sites where you can do this kind of thing easily in the interim; clearly this is a horse of another color.)

*The domain transfer came through, so the issue is moot*

I have the same situation and problem. There is an existing domain for a web site that is on a completely different host, both of which will be entirely abandoned in favor of the entirely new site I am building on the new host, to which the existing domain name will ultimately be redirected. I am not putting in for a domain transfer until the new WordPress-based site is ready on the new host. I just installed WordPress on the new host, and it follows the current domain name redirects to the existing site. I cannot get into my new installation of WordPress on the new host to develop the new site – it only points to the current site, where there is no access to the new host and WordPress installation. FYI: I have less experience with this than Catherine_B. Can you help apljdi, or anyone else?