Bluehost Web Hosting Help

How To Migrate A WordPress Site - Website Migration

Overview

This article will explain how to move your WordPress website from one folder to another within your hosting account.

What You Need

To move a WordPress site, you will need to know a few things about your site and your hosting account.

Required

  • The username and password to your Bluehost account.
  • A basic understanding of what files and folders are.
  • The current location (folder and URL) of your WordPress site.
  • The destination (folder and URL) of your WordPress site.

Optional

  • The username and password to your WordPress site.

Access the File Manager

The File Manager on your account can be used to move or copy files on your server. We will use it to move your WordPress files.

  1. Log in to your Bluehost cPanel account.
  2. Click the Hosting tab at the top.
  3. Then click the cPanel link under hosting.
  4. Scroll down to the Files section and click on the File Manager icon.
  5. Next, you may be asked to select a directory to open. Select Web Root and check Show Hidden Files (dotfiles), then click Go to proceed.

    The File Manager will load and show you the files and directories in your account.

    Copy The Files

    Now that you are in the File Manager, you need to locate your files and copy them to the destination directory. The location of your files may vary, but your main site will be in the public_html directory. Other sites usually have their own folders inside the public_html directory.

    It is highly recommended you copy the files rather than move them from the original location. Once the migration is complete and you have verified the site is working, you can remove the files in the old location. To complete the steps in this walkthrough, the files must be copied not moved.

    1. In the File Manager, navigate to the directory containing your WordPress site.
    2. Click the Select All icon.
      Note: If you have more than just WordPress files in your directory, you may want to deselect some files to avoid copying them.
    3. Once you the files have been selected, click the Copy icon at the top of the screen.
    4. In the Copy popup, type the destination folder into the box next to the home icon.
    5. Click the Copy File(s) button.
      Note: There isn’t a progress bar to indicate if the copy was successful. You will need to go to the destination folder to confirm whether or not your files are there.

      6. Update The URL (Optional)

      Moving your website from one folder to another will change your URL, unless you have adjusted the domain assignments to accommodate the change within your account. If you want to know more about domain assignments please, see Assigning an Addon or Parked Domain

      Before changing the URL setting in your site, you must be certain the new URL is correct. Setting the wrong URL will break your WordPress site!

      How do I find the correct URL?

      Finding the correct URL isn't hard. A URL consists of a domain such as www.example.com. The domain is assigned to a folder in your account like public_html. When someone types "www.example.com" into the browser, the website will load from public_html folder. If there is a folder inside public_html containing a website the URL would be "www.example.com/folder-name", where folder-name is the name of the specific folder inside public_html.

      For example: The domain example.com is assigned to public_html. If you move the WordPress site from public_html to the public_html/blog folder, the new URL of the WordPress site would be http://www.example.com/blog/

      Follow these steps to update your WordPress URL.

      1. Login to your WordPress site using the old URL.
        Note: Since the files were copied and not moved, your original site should still exist. You should not remove the original files until you have verified the site works in the new location.
      2. Hover over the Settings menu on the left side and click General
      3. Under General Settings, enter the new URL for both the WordPress Address URL and Site Address (URL)
        Note: It is critical that you enter the URL correctly. Entering the wrong URL will break the site.
      4. Click the Save Changes button.

      Once you click the Save Changes button, you will be redirected to the new URL and asked to login again. Go ahead and test the site to make sure everything is working. A common issue that occurs after moving a WordPress site is that images will stop displaying. If this happens, you likely need to update more URL's in the database. The velvet blues plugin can help you update image URLS Velvet Blues Update URLS



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