Don’t try move a site manually – there are just too many spots were you can go wrong.
The Duplicator plugin backs up everything – including the database.
It produces two files that you download and the upload to the directory you want to install in. You then run oneof the files, installer.php at the new site and when finished you’ll have an exact copy of your other site.
It’s installation is like most plugins, go to Plugins from the Admin left sidebar, click new, type duplicate in the search box-to search online, not amongst your installed plugins. Duplicator should be the first plugin found.
Install and activate it.
Duplicator will add an entry to the Admin sidebar, towards the bottom.
Click it, then click New Package and follow the instructions. On some of the pages, you have to scroll down to find things like Next buttons.
The last step in making a Duplicator package is to download the two package files it created. There will be buttons on the final page which will download the files – put them in a new directory on your computer.
To install the package requires a tad more experience/knowledge that most people don’t have but once you understand the fields it wants filled, it usually runs just fine.
So, install the Duplicator plugin and Activate it. Then build a package.
If you have any problems, post a reply telling me exactly what any error messages say.
Once you have a package, I will walk you through installing it where ever you want.
Duplicator backups everything on your site as well as the database. You can install it anywhere and have an exact copy of the site where you made the Duplicator package.
There are other ways to move a site but they have many steps where you use various software or commands to do them one at a time.
Duplicator simplifies all of that.
Here’s the short form of making a portable copy of a WP site. Read these instructions, if they make sense to you, go ahead and follow them. If not, reply to me and I’ll walk your through it one or two steps at a time. Once you do it one time, it will be easy to use it in the future.
1) Install the Duplicator plugin and activate it.
2) Create a new Duplicator package.
3) Download th4 two package files to your computer.
4) Upload the package file to the new location (use FTP or your hosting company’s control panel File Manager)
5) Go to the new hosting company’s site and run phpMyADmin. You want to add a user and password. Just create a user and password -don’t select any option to make a new database – want just create a user. Grant the new user Global Permissions, you may have to scroll down to see that option.
6) Use your browser to go to example.com/installer.php (that is the installer created by Duplicator)
6) Follow the instructions. The confusing part is what to enter for database name, host name, database user, database password.
7) you are moving to another server, on a new hosting company – right? I’ll assume your are)
8) When the “Step 2 of 4: Install Database” page comes up, there are five fields you have to fill in or select.
9) The first option is a drop down list – you want to select “Create New Database” It defaults to “Connect and Delete all Data” you want to select “Create New Database”
10) For the database name, enter whatever you want to use for the new database’s name.
11) For Database host nae – get the host name for the database from the new hosting company.
12) For database user name and password, use the name and password you specified when you created the new user via phpMyAdmin on the new hosting site, in step 5
13) Use the Test Database button, towards the bottom of the ” “Step 2 of 4: Install Database” page to test the information you just entered.
14) If the test fails, look at the values you specified and see if they are correct – as described above. If you are stuck, post me a reply with the error messages you see.
15) If the database test passes, click the Next button to continue.
15) The next step will set up your new database
16) The next window will be labeled “Deployment”
17) There are options you can set. One is to create a new administrator user – I suggest you do so to have a sure way to log on as administrator if your administrator user on the test site doesn’t work for some reason.
18) Click Options to expand the section. Then enter the requested information for a new administrator user.
19) Click the next button at the bottom of the page.
20) This should take you to “Step 4 of 4: Test Site”
Click the Admin Login button and a new window/tab will open and show the WP login. Use your original administrator user and password. If you have problems, try the new one you create above in step 18.
You’ll be taken to the Admin page and the Duplicator section.
It will ask you if you want to delete the installer files – click the link to do so.
Your site has not been moved from the original location to the new hosting company’s server and should work as it did on the test site.
If any errors occurs, stop at that step and tell me the step you were trying what happened.
By the way – I also use Duplicator to backup my site as well to move sites. It gives me a backup that I can restore even if the site is completely messed up and I can’t get to the Admin page to use some other sort of plugin’s restore function.
If you have FTP access to the server, you can restore the Duplicator package from there. Many of the other backup methods require you have access to the site.
But, if the site is toast, Duplicator allows you to restore the backup anyway.
