How To Transfer WordPress Site

How To Transfer WordPress Site To New Host And Domain (2 Steps)

The Objective

In this WordPress tutorial, I will guide you on how to transfer WordPress site to new host and domain. Using this method, you will also be able to:

  • Migrate your site to new hosting using the same or different domain name.
  • Migrate from your local computer offline site to new live hosting website.
  • Backup your website.

If you prefer a video tutorial, you may watch the tutorial video below:

Step 1: How To Backup Your Current Website

  • Login to your WordPress dashboard and install a free plugin “All-in-One WP Migration” and activate it.
  • After the plugin is activated, you will see a new option All-in-One WP Migration settings, select “Export”
  • In the next screen, select “Export To” and select “File” and you will see the exporting progress.
  • After the progress finish, click the “Download” to download your website backup file.
  • At any time if you want to restore your website, you can go to All-in-One WP Migration settings to select “Backup” and click on the “Restore” button to restore your backup copy.

Step 2: How To Migrate Your Website

  • Login to your new hosting CPanel or something similar to install a fresh copy of WordPress. You can refer to my tutorial on how to install WordPress in CPanel here.
  • After the fresh copy of WordPress is installed on your new hosting, login to the dashboard to install the All-in-One WP Migration plugin again on your new website and activate it.
  • After the plugin is activated, go to All-in-One WP Migration settings to select “Import” and click the “Import From” button and select your previously downloaded backup file.
  • The maximum backup file size you can upload for free version is 500 MB. If you have backup more than 500 MB, you will need to go for paid version.

Troubleshoot

If you fail to upload your backup file that less than 500 MB, you may try to increase your website upload size by:

Solution 1. The safest way without coding is to login to your web hosting CPanel and look for “PHP Selector”. You can change your maximum upload file size here.

Solution 2. Editing the .htaccess file and add this code in it:

php_value upload_max_filesize 512M
php_value post_max_size 512M
php_value memory_limit 256M
php_value max_execution_time 300
php_value max_input_time 300

Explanation:
upload_max_filesize – set this to a value > than your backup
post_max_size – set this to a value > than your backup
memory_limit – set this to a value > than your backup
max_execution_time – set this to 0 (infinite)

Solution 3. Edit your wp-config.php file by adding this code:

@ini_set( ‘upload_max_filesize’ , ‘512M’ );
@ini_set( ‘post_max_size’, ‘512M’);
@ini_set( ‘memory_limit’, ‘256M’ );
@ini_set( ‘max_execution_time’, ‘300’ );
@ini_set( ‘max_input_time’, ‘300’ );

Explanation:
upload_max_filesize – set this to a value > than your backup
post_max_size – set this to a value > than your backup
memory_limit – set this to a value > than your backup
max_execution_time – set this to 0 (infinite)

Solution 4. Contact your web host:

If all the above failed, you may contact your web host to request them to increase your upload limit on their side for you. I have seen, if you are using some free hosting plan where they only allow the maximum upload size limit to 10MB.

  • After the import progress is finished, you will see a success message and clck on the next button and follow the instruction to login to your migrated site and go to the settings to save the permalink settings.

Conclusion

This is a great plugin so far I have used it many times without any problem. The alternative free plugin you can try out is Duplicator, but this plugin is slightly a little confusing if you are totally a newbie to WordPress, where you need to manually connect to the database of the migrated website.

To start a WordPress website, click here.

Similar Posts