How to Manually Migrate Your Wordpress Site to Any Hosts (No Downtime)

in this video i'm going to show you how to migrate a website manually from one web post to another regardless of the web host you use the steps may be a little different depending on the web host you use but the idea and concept of site migration stays the same for this video example we'll be migrating a website from siteground to a2 hosting the thing is when i first got into a2 hosting i thought that their support team would help me migrate all of my websites to their host as long as it is not too complicated but later on i realized that a2 hosting is only able to help with the site migration for free only if the transfer out host uses cpanel anything out of cpanel we have to pay a fee for it but the first migration is free and for siteground it is not using cpanel so i gonna learn how to manually migrate my websites from one host to another i watch a couple of youtube videos and try to implement them for my site but every time i follow along i always run into errors so i gotta dig deep to troubleshoot and try to solve all the issues myself and i've also engaged with the support team for help with every successful site migration i gain more experience because every website comes with different needs especially when it comes to the size of the website so in this video what you can expect is i'll be going through every single detail of the migration so that it's easy to follow and most importantly your sites will be hosted on a new server with no downtime and no issues and without further ado let's get started [Music] hey this is jack and this is your first time watching a video from my channel i share a lot of wordpress tutorials and comparisons mainly focused on site speed and core web vitals we have discovered the fastest wordpress hosting the fastest wordpress theme and the fastest wordpress page builder so if you want to learn more about building a beautiful yet fast loading website then subscribe to the channel and hit the bell notification so that your content will rank better on search engines now i've basically broken the process down into four simple steps let's get started with the first all right in this example we'll be transferring this website righthandai.com and this website is currently hosted on siteground as you can see and this is supported by this as you can see over here this is the ip address and if we go to siteground this is the website righthandai.com and this is the site ip address so what we need to do now is to backup three important files from your website this is going to be the same if you are hosted on different web posts you need to access the files of your website and to do that in siteground you have to go to site and under file manager as you can see these are all the files let's select the public html and what we need to do is to backup the entire folder of wp content let's right click and you want to select archive you can give this file a name let's say this is the wp content let's confirm whatever name you put here it really doesn't matter so let's confirm now depending on the size of your website the bigger your website is the longer it will take for it to back up but as for this website this is a test site so there isn't much content and that's why it is fast and as you can see this is the file that we have backed up what we need to do is to download this zip file to our local computer which is your pc let's click on download let's save the file let's give this a while we need to make sure that whatever size it is over here it has to be downloaded in full as you can see over here this is 19.6 and i think this is roundup so we know all the files has been copied sometimes if you have not copied all the files when you transferred over to your new web host it doesn't work so you gotta make sure that you have downloaded all the files by checking and comparing the size of the files next there is another file that you need to download which is this wpconfig.php you need to right-click and download and there we go so these are the two files we need from the file manager and there is just one more file you need which is your site's database now you may ask what happens to all these files over here don't you need to copy all of them the answer is no you don't need to copy every single file here because most of the files over here are default wordpress files that will be created when you create a new website on your new host so these are the two files we need over at the file manager let's go to mysql and then you want to select phpmyadmin and you want to access phpmyadmin now let's select the database and these are all the database tables depending on your website you might have more tables but as i said this is a test site so there isn't much content what we need to do is to check all by clicking on this check box and then with the selected you want to export it you can either click on this or you can click on this and then you want to select go and then you want to save this and here we go these are the three files you will need to bring over to your new web host without either one of these files the site on your new host would not work that's the end of step one it's rather easy right now let's create a new wordpress website with the same domain name on the new web host let's go all right now we are here at the new web host and i'm using a2 hosting and there are specific reasons why i chose a2 hosting and it is because they are the fastest and the cheapest it is tested and proven if you haven't watched the comparison video at the top right i highly recommend you check it out i've left the link in the description as well anyway a2 hosting uses cpanel so what we need to do is to log into cpanel and there we go let's scroll down and we want to search for something called add-on domains now for cpanel they will always have a main domain and then if you want to add more domains to the web host you will select this add-on domains and because on my hosting account i already have a main domain i'll select this add-on domains let's click on this and then over here you want to put in the domain you want to transfer which is this righthandais.com this is the website we want to transfer over to the new web host so we need to copy this domain and let's head over to the cpanel of the new web post and paste it over here and as soon as you click away you can see all this information are auto view now we don't really need an ftp account for this setup because i feel that the ftp method is a little slow and if your site happens to be a big website sometimes it may disconnect when you're transferring files over personally when migrating websites i don't like to use the ftp method let's continue with this let's add domain and you will see that a new domain has been added to your new web host and what we need to do now is to install wordpress on this domain because if you go to the file manager right now of this domain you can see that there are basically nothing here and if you remember on the previous host under the file manager we have all these files over here then our default wordpress files so right here let's click on this to go back to the cpanel dashboard and let's search for something called softaceus i'm not sure how you pronounce this but let's just click on this this is where you install wordpress on the domain i'll select this wordpress a2 optimize and i'll click on install and then over here we want to select http instead of https because we haven't pointed the dns server over to the new web host and hence we cannot install an ssl certificate on a new domain just yet and if you install the wordpress website on the https there will be a downtime because it takes time to install the ssl certificate i hope this makes sense to you so let's select http and then you want to select the website you have just created which is this righthandai.com and then over here for the site name this really doesn't matter what you put in here because after you've transferred all the files over to the new web host this will be changed let me show you what i mean let's just put test for now and then for the site description as well let's just put test as well okay and you want to give a username and a password this is for you to log into your wordpress backend and your email address let's scroll down let's open this advanced options and now you will see over here there is this database name with this gibberish numbers and the thing is it is hard to identify the website with all these gibberish numbers especially when you have lots of domains on your hosting server so personally i'll put in the name of the website and because you can only have seven characters i'll put a name that is easily identifiable now what this basically means right is that when you're installing wordpress by default it will install a database to store all your site's information just like what we have on our previous host if you remember there are some tables over here that's exactly what we are trying to achieve and over here there is this table prefix if you go to our downloads under this wp config if you scroll down over here there will be this database password the username the database name and if you scroll down further you will see this table prefix as tkw underscore so this is what we need to copy and then we need to head over here and paste it here so that the information will be aligned now we are ready let's install okay cool now that we've installed wordpress on the domain on the new server it's time to upload all the files we have backed up from our previous host onto the new web host so let's go oh right before that i want to show you something let's go to the cpanel remember on this website right hand ai there wasn't any files over here let's refresh now and you can see all these files are created these are all default wordpress files which you can find from your previous host and that's why all we need is to copy those three files i've mentioned okay now we are at the file manager of the new wordpress site we have installed if you forgot how to reach the file manager let's go back to the cpanel and you want to scroll down and over here under files there's this file manager here let's click on this and you need to select the right domain so that the files of the domain will be reflected here now what we want to do is to delete this wp content because we are going to upload the wp contents from the previous host so let's select this and you want to delete we wanna skip the trash and delete permanently and confirm now it's gone next you wanna select upload and remember the files you have downloaded from the previous host we wanna drag this wp content.zip over here so that it will upload now most web hosting servers if you want to upload a folder you have to upload it through a zip file unless it is a single file like the wp config so that's what you need to take note of and this is uploaded let's go back and then let's search for the zip file i don't think it is reflected yet so let's refresh let's select the domain and we'll see this wp content.zip which is the file we have just uploaded to the file manager now we want to right click and we want to extract it let's extract the file so you get this message when everything has been extracted let's close this and you will see there is the wp content file we have just uploaded now what we do not want is to have a file that is hogging the web space because there is really no need for this dot zip anymore after you have extracted the folder from the zip file so let's select this and delete the zip file skip the trash and confirm now that is gone next we need to replace this wp config file you can either delete and upload this file here just like what we did for this wp contents folder if not you can just leave this as it is and you just upload it click and drag it over now as you can see it is telling you that there is this existing wp config file and they are asking if you want to overwrite the existing file and what we want to do is to click yes and this is done let's go back and refresh make sure to select the right domain and if you open this up and if you view this and compare the content you will see that the details are exactly the same now here's the most important part as you know the database name of your previous host is going to be different from the database name of your new web host so if the database names doesn't match your website will not work the same goes for the username and the password this wp config file is basically the brain of your website it connects everything of your website through these little lines of codes here so how do we fix this we need to go back to cpanel by clicking on this logo and then let's go down to mysql databases and as you scroll down you will see right here this is the database name we have created and this is the user id now what we want to do is to open up the wp config file and edit all this information here so let's open up cpanel in another tab i want to put this side by side okay let's go to the file manager select the right domain and let's find the wp config file which is right here right click and we want to click on edit this is prompting you to ask you if you know what you're doing and if you know what you are doing let's click on edit and over here under the db name which is the database name we want to copy this and we want to paste it here and then under the database username we want to copy this and we want to paste it here make sure that there are no spaces you just have to be careful because when you copy there may be some unwanted spaces then for the database password we want to scroll down and as you can see over here you can change the password or actually you can just generate a password like this click on this use password because normally you would not need to use this password over here so make sure you copy the generated password and you want to paste it here and then over here you want to change that password done so these are the three information you need for everything to work and now that we have changed this let's save changes and it is time to transfer the database file from the previous host to the new host let's close this off and expand this let's go back to the cpanel and then let's scroll down and find this app over here phpmyadmin click on this and then you want to select the right database and with all these database tables which are basically the default wordpress installs we want to delete all of them so we can upload the database from the previous host over here let's check all and with this selected we want to drop them let's click yes and now you have a completely blank database what we want to do is to import let's click on browse and then we want to select the sql file we have downloaded from our previous host remember there are 20 sql tables let's see if there are 20 where we have imported this sql to the new server let's click on go and here we go let's click on this database and now we can see there are 20 tables here we have successfully uploaded the database from the previous server over to the new web post now at this point if your website database is large you may encounter some errors i'll explain to you why because if you click on import you will see this maximum file size for upload and it says 105 megabytes over here and the reason why it went through just now is because the sql file was 20 megabytes it is within the range but if your sql file size is larger than 105 megabytes or maybe even 20 megabytes depending on the setup of your php you might encounter some errors and i'm gonna show you how to fix that with a2 hosting it is a little complicated because the host has to restrict the maximum file size to be 105 megabytes but there is another way for you to do that but let me just show you how to increase this if you're on other web host and you're using cpanel you need to go to your cpanel and you need to search for something called select php version which is over here under software select php version let's click on this and then as you can see currently it is 7.4 under options and if you scroll down you'll see this max file uploads there is a maximum of 75 and over at the bottom there is this upload max file size you can select it to the max a2 hosting will only allow you to upload a maximum of 105 megabytes but if you are on other web hosts i'm not sure which you use normally once you have updated this if you refresh this section you will normally see this as whatever that you have set over here so now let me show you how to upload a database file that is bigger than 105 megabytes onto a2 hosting now just for this example i want to delete all the database that i've just uploaded to show you how i upload database using another method so i'll check all and then i will drop them now we have a completely blank database for this domain now you need to install an application called putty which you can find on putty.org you need to download and install putty on your computer by clicking this but for me i already have putty installed on my computer which is right here this will allow you to access your root server so you can perform some tasks directly onto your server this is like the back door to your web host so it's important not to disclose any information of your root host to someone else which is why i can't show you the details so i'll cover the information up but before we access to the root server we gotta do something which is to upload the database file onto your file manager of your domain so let's go to cpanel and access your file manager right here we want to select the domain and then over here we want to click on upload and then let's select file now we want to upload the sql file onto your file manager so that we can go to the root server and extract the file from your file manager let's select this and once it's done let's go back to the folder and we can see that the sql file is now uploaded to the file manager now we are ready but before that we need to prepare some information so i'll open up a notepad and then we want to copy this sql file name copy this and then we want to paste it here this is one of the information we need we also need the database name and the username of the database so let's go back to cpanel and let's go to mysql and over here we want to copy this and we want to paste it here the username and the database name are the same so i will not duplicate this and we are basically done now it is time for us to access the ssh which is the back end of your web host have you downloaded this make sure you do so and now let's go to the client area of a2 hosting and as you can see there is this host name the username and the password of your ssh let's open up putty and we want to minimize this cool we have everything we need on one screen what we need to do is to copy this hostname let's copy this and paste it here and then for the ssh part is 7822 let's copy this and paste it on the part here next let's click on open and now it's asking you to log in as you want to copy the username and then on putty to paste things do not use the key control v because it wouldn't work all you need to do is to right click and it will be pasted let's hit enter and then it's asking for the password you gotta expand this you need to open this up copy the password i wanna paste it on notepad first because sometimes as you copy this there are some spaces that are copied and you do not want that let's delete that space and copy the password and over on putty let's paste this by right clicking and then on the background it is pasted already hit enter and now we are in as you can see over here this is the host name now what we need to do next is to execute a command like this this is the database name which is right here that's why i asked you to copy that let's paste this here and then for the database name let's put it here and over here this is the sql file you have uploaded to the file manager just now what we need to do is to go to the file manager again and then this is the file name right and this is the folder you have uploaded the sql file to so what you need to do is to copy this and then over here you want to paste it here and then you want to paste the name of the sql file here let's copy this command right click to paste this and hit enter and now it is asking for the password this is the password for this database and remember we have configured that in the wp config file so over here let's search for the wp config file and then we want to right click and view it and this is the password let's copy this and paste it here hit enter and then it's basically done on the back end and to show you some proof remember on this database there are no database tables found let's refresh this and voila there are 20 tables uploaded using the backdoor to your server now if you encounter an issue saying that the file does not exist it means that they can't find the file so that's why you need to specify where you have uploaded the file to and if you want to make this very simple you can upload this file directly to your home right here instead of the websites folder you can upload the sql file directly to your home folder over here and if that is the case you can remove this and just leave the sql file and everything will work so as you can see it may seem intimidating because you're accessing the ssh server but actually if you know what you're doing if you know the exact steps as i've shown you it is not that complicated after all the basic function is to extract the information from the sql file onto the database of your website and that's it and now we can delete the file that you have uploaded because there is of no use anymore let's delete this and we are done it is time for us to point our domain name server onto the new web host so let's go now before we point our dns over to the new web post there is one very important thing we need to do we need to go to the database of the new website and you need to search for this option database table this regard the prefix here we need the options let's click on this every wordpress site has this options table and right here this site url and home remember we have installed wordpress on http instead of https because we have not installed the ssl certificate and if it happens that somebody enters your domain name on the web browser this https version will be forced and that's where you will have a downtime so for now before we install the ssl certificate we need to change this to http so let's click on edit let's remove this as here and click go the same thing goes for the home let's edit this remove this and click go now we are ready to point the dns over to the new web host and the dns for my new web host are this so we need to go to the domain name registrar and change this let's copy this paste it here do the same thing for the second name server now it really depends on where your domain registrar is i'm using namecheap if you are using for example godaddy or other name registrars you'll have this function to point your name servers so they're all the same it's just different platforms i'll add a name server put in the third add another change this because they are all the same it's just that they are running numbers and let's hit save and this will take about 48 hours to take effect and if we go to the dns checker and let's search for this again right now you can see some already port over to the new server but let's give this a while for the propagation to complete let's try to refresh again now as we wait for the dns to propagate we can already install the ssl certificate so let's go to the cpanel let's scroll down till we see this ssl slash tls status let's click on that and over here as you can see the ssl certificates are already installed on these domains but just in case they're not installed on your domain what we need to do is to select all and then we want to uncheck all this and then we want to run auto ssl currently this is already running so in your case if you see a button run auto ssl you want to click on that and what this is going to do is to install ssl certificate on those domains you have unchecked and then once you see the green light on this you can go to your database of the website and under options you can edit this again to https the same goes for your home and then you can just wait for your dns to propagate and once it's ready i'm confident your domain is now hosted on your new server without any downtime so i left it for a few hours and now let us check the dns as you can see most of them has already been propagated to the new web host and to see if the site is working and it's hosted on a new server let's do an ssl check let's open up a new tab and let's search for the domain let's check ssl now as you can see the ssl resolves to the ip address of the new web host and if we go to the live site and refresh we can see that the site is now working there is basically no downtime and everything is working smoothly so there you have it the site is now migrated to the new web host if you want to migrate another website feel free to follow the process again i'm pretty sure everything will be working fine and smoothly for you i hope this tutorial is easy for you to follow and if you encounter any issues following the steps feel free to leave a comment down below and i will do my best to help but the best help you can get is through the support theme of your new web host so if it is urgent please submit a support ticket to your host and in case you want to get into a2 hosting i hope you can use this link to make the purchase it is the fastest and the cheapest web host based on my research anyway if this video helped i hope you can smash that thumbs up button so that this video can reach out to people who need information all the best to you take care stay cool and as always stay safe [Music] bye

Channel: Jack Cao

Views: 1,204

Keywords: manually migrate wordpress, how to migrate wordpress site to new host, copy wordpress site to new host, migrate wordpress website, move wordpress site to new host, migrate wordpress site, migrate wordpress, how to migrate wordpress site, wordpress migration, wordpress website migration, how to transfer wordpress site to new host, how to migrate an entire wordpress site to new host, how to migrate wordpress site manually, siteground to a2 hosting, siteground migrate wordpress site

Id: RAaZEO3GQ78

Length: 26min 13sec (1573 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 01 2021