Moving a wordpress site to new server WITHOUT database file

  • A client didn’t pay her hosting and had the site deleted.
    I have a backup of the main site folder i.e wordpress with all the uploads, themes, regular file BUT I for some reason do not have the xml / database file.

    Can I just install a new wordpress version onto the server and point the same URL I had before to it. Then delete the wordpress installation and replace with my old backup (diff version of wordpress for sure) then start building pages from there???

    Thanks in advance people. this one is new to me so I appreciate it!

Viewing 8 replies - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)

  • Sure you can install a new WordPress site on your new server, and then replace all the files with the files from your backup.

    But, since you don’t have the database file, all content will be gone and you will probably have to do some extra configuration.

    Thread Starter brendanalbert

    (@brendanalbert)

    Ok, thanks. So I’d have no pages or posts but everything else should still be there right?

    I have a backup of the custom css too.

    Without a database, you won’t have pages or posts, but you also won’t have all uploaded images catalogued, or widget settings, or users, or theme configurations.

    A lot of things are being kept in the databse, so all of that is gone.

    Thread Starter brendanalbert

    (@brendanalbert)

    Is the XML file enough? or do I need to grab a cPanel database?

    I have been only exporting the wordpress XML files along with a copy of all the content on the site via FTP.

    thanks for the responses!

    The db in case of WordPress stores pretty much everything. Your custom css etc is fine but if you don’t have the db you won’t be able to display any posts/pages. Images will be there but they won’t be linked to from anywhere. You need the db backup/xml backup to restore.

    Thread Starter brendanalbert

    (@brendanalbert)

    ok, thanks, but is JUST the XML file good enough? does it have everything a proper cpanel database has? that is my main question.

    Yes, if you’ve logged into your wp panel and exported the XML, then you can import it later to a new install. That XML has all the posts/pages data. I’m not sure but I think it has your custom settings too.

    If you have an XML file with your posts and pages, then that’s at least better than nothing, I’d say.

    Has nothing to do with the CPanel, though!

Viewing 8 replies - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)
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