If you have moved your WordPress site or blog and have lost everything – your posts, pages, theme customizations, links, and more – then you can use these tips to help avoid that happening again. If you have never moved your WordPress site and have never lost your data, or are planning on moving your WordPress blog soon, these tips can help you keep all your information safe!
It seems that with every website hosting move, there is some work to be done afterwards. Sometimes when moving your WordPress blog, the move just does not go as planned. If you have one of those bad moves, it is stressful and annoying to lose everything you have worked so hard to create. Take these precautions when moving your WordPress blog or site, to help ensure your losses are minimized and your data is protected.
The first thing to do is export your information in WordPress. To accomplish this, login to your WordPress Dashboard (www.yoururl.com/wp-admin), then go to “Export” on the “Tools” tab. If this is your first export, you want to click the circle beside “All Content”, then click “Download Export File.”
Select “All Content,” Then Click “Download Export File”
This will download a special file (usually an XML file) to your computer. If you happen to lose any posts, pages, or comments, then this file can be imported to the blog’s new location to help restore your information.
In addition to this Export, there are some other precautions that you want to take, so frustration can be avoided.
You have got to be kidding me!
The next thing to do is to backup all your website or blog files that are on your web hosting server. I use cPanel, so to do this I log into my cPanel using the Login and Password provided by HostGator; then I right-click my public_html file and compress it. Once compressed, then I can more easily download it through cPanel or through FileZilla (or the FTP software of your choice). Once all of these files are saved to your computer, then you are ready for the next step before moving your WordPress blog……
Backing up your SQL file.
Your SQL file contains all the information that helps your WordPress site function properly. It is very important to backup regularly (especially when you update your WordPress software… but that is for another post 😉 ).
To back up your SQL database before moving your WordPress blog or site, you need to go to your web hosting server (cPanel in my case) and go to your PHP Admin feature. For HostGator, it is called “phpMyAdmin.” To back up a database, I click on phpMyAdmin, then click on the database I wish to backup (on the left-hand column). After that, I click on the EXPORT tab at the top of the screen. I do not change any of the settings that are pre-selected. When ready to export, I click “GO” in the bottom right hand corner of the screen. Once the .sql file downloads to my computer, then it is saved.
Backing up these things cannot prevent all disaster when moving your WordPress blog or site, but if something goes wrong, you will have all your files in your possession to get your site back up and running as quickly as possible. Keep these files in a safe place, just in case you need them. (I was glad I had them last time I moved this site. Lol. After losing everything, I had it back up and running within 2-3 days).