Migrating site content to new server, problem with images

  • Due to lack of stability in old hosting service, I am migrating a large site to a new server. When I have exported (month by month) content, then imported it to the new server, the media (photos/images)does not import. I have tried taking the media files and ftp-ing into the /content/uploads folder but the images are not in the media folder. By experimenting I found that if I ftp the images to the uploads folder before importing the content, It recognizes the image file in its original size, however if a thumbnail or other size has been used in a post, the image is not recognized, it is not in the media folder. So for thousands of images, the thumbnail and medium sized images are not hooked to the post nor in the media library. I tried the plugin, Add To Server, but it still does not make the image (thumbnail or medium size)hook up to the post. I have to do this manually. Since I have over 500 posts and thousands of images, this is not a happy situation. I have completed 20% of the content and am growing weary.

    Has anyone else run into this and does anyone have a fix?

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)

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    Thread Starter carlanne

    (@carlanne)

    I am using WP3.1.2 on the new server although I am at 2.9 on the old server. (I have also created a new theme for the new site but that should not affect anything. I guess it could create some issues if I try what you suggested, but am not sure.) I will try your suggestions on another site I am moving and see how it goes. The maximum upload to the new site is 8 MB and a backup of this magnitude (over 500 posts and 1000s of images) is greater than 8 MB. The other sites I have to migrate are smaller. I will update when I try it on another site. If any one else has any other suggestions, I welcome them! Thank you for responding, The Sweede.

    Thread Starter carlanne

    (@carlanne)

    Pressbackup has not worked for me. I am trying to see if I can FTP the entire site to my local machine and then upload it to the new server to see if I can make it work. So far I have failed to get the site I am experimenting with to ftp a copy to my local machine. It keeps failing. I did read where if one is going to use pressbackup one should have the same version of WordPress on both servers. Just an FYI to anyone who reads and decides to try this.I am upgrading my existing site to 3.1.3 and the new site will be the same.

    Thread Starter carlanne

    (@carlanne)

    FYI – I have finally found that in the migration to the new server, every image has had a 1 added to the end its URL – Not in the file itself, but in the Advanced Settings when you click on the photo in the article. This is of particular issue if one has used a medium size (300X225) or a thumbnail (150X150). If one has used the size photo that they uploaded, it does not happen.

    Example:
    ORIGINAL: image_1234-150×150.jpg
    After migration: image_12341-150×150.jpg

    I am now going through roughly 500 posts all of which contain 1 to 4 images and taking the “1” off, clicking “update” and then updating the article. The whole process can take up to 5 minutes per post, but better than the battle of replacing images and messing with the photos on the server.

    I hope this will help anyone who has the same issues

    Thread Starter carlanne

    (@carlanne)

    addendum to the last post – this only works if your images are in wp-content/uploads folder format. If you are storing the images in year and month folders (wp-content/uploads/year/month), this is not the “fix”. Unfortunately for me the images are in year and month files for the first 475 articles. ??

    It is my guess that I will be copying all the images to the uploads folder from the year and month folders and trying this again. Shall see, shall see.

    A couple of things

    I would get the content transfer over and working using the same WP version and the same template then upgrade WP and change the template. Many times when the version of WP changes so does the database format.

    If you old ISP offers CPanel you might want to try that to transfer the files to your local computer, should work better than ftp.

    Might also try Backup and Move plugin, haven’t tried it myself and have seen both good and not so good comments on it.

    Good luck with you move

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)
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