Migrate WordPress
So you want to move your WordPress site to a new server! Well you’ve come to the right place. Follow along these step by step instructions for migrating your WordPress site.
We’re going to migrate using the super popular WordPress plugin called All-in-One Migration.
Find the Migration plugin in your WordPress admin menu, and click ‘Export’
On the Migration Export page, click ‘Export To’ then click ‘File’
You’ll see a dialog box pop-up, which will run through the process of first checking then exporting your site for migration. Depending on the size of your site this could take a few seconds or a few minutes. Once this process is complete you will see a button that says download yoursite.com Go ahead and download your site! This archive is going to be a .wpress filetype.
Now that you have exported your site, go to your new server and install a fresh copy of WordPress. Most servers have automatic installers that make this quick and easy, but we’ll cover how to install WordPress in another tutorial. Once you have a fresh copy of WordPress installed on the server you wish to migrate to, install the All-in-One WP Migration plugin there. Note- your instance of WordPress on the new server doesn’t need to be completely fresh, this process can be used to overwrite an old site too, so make sure if you have content there already BACKUP YOUR SITE FIRST!
Then you simply click on the All-in-One WP Migration Import link in the admin menu of your destination servers WordPress admin panel.
On the Import page, click ‘Import From’, then click ‘File’.
When the file selector prompt opens, click on the .wpress archive of your site you downloaded earlier (it’s likely in your computers download folder).
Boom! You’ve migrated your WordPress site to a new server! Good work!
Common Issues:
If your migration archive file is too large to upload you will get an error. This can be fixed by changing the upload_max_filesize setting in your hosts php.ini file. Note this limit is there to increase security (so hackers have a hard time uploading a root kit or similar malware) you might want to change it back to a modest size after you complete your migration.