How to Migrate a WordPress Site

What do you copy when you migrate a WordPress site?

A WordPress migration copies the files and the MySQL database. The theme, plugins, and uploads live under wp-content. Posts, pages, settings, and users live in the database. Both have to arrive, or the new site is a shell.

• wp-content: themes, plugins, and the uploads folder.
• The database export, usually a .sql file.
• A copy of wp-config.php so you can see the old database name. You replace the password on the new host.
• The domain stays at the registrar. Moving the site is not a domain transfer.

Tools, then Export, in wp-admin downloads posts and pages as XML. It does not bring the theme, the media library, or the database. Use it only when you want the writing, not the site.

Which path should you use?

Use a plugin when the site is a normal install and the archive fits the host upload limit. Use FTP and phpMyAdmin when the plugin stops or the host blocks it. Ask the new host when you would rather not touch the database.

On a move to WordPress hosting, email support@webji.services with that backup or the old wp-admin login. An approved move that comes with a new plan is free and subject to terms. It is not an instant button.

If the job is not part of a new plan, WebJi® quotes the price by email before any payment. A separate website migration service is for that quoted job. WebJi® is not another host's migration desk, and we do not log into their portal.

What do you check before the copy starts?

Do this on the old site before you build a package. The new account should already exist, with free disk for the files and the database.

• Save a backup off the server. The plugin archive is not your only copy.
• Note the PHP version and match it on the new host before you judge a plugin error.
• Remove themes and plugins you do not use, and turn caching off for the export.
• Keep the old host online. Cancelling it first is how the live site disappears.

How do you move the site with a plugin?

The plugin builds an archive on the old site. You upload that archive to the new account and run its installer or its import screen. Stop when wp-admin opens on the temporary URL.

A package plugin such as Duplicator, or an import plugin such as All-in-One WP Migration, moves the files and the database together. A free import edition often stops on a large archive. If the export will not finish, use the manual copy or ask the host. Do not edit the plugin to raise its limit.

1. In wp-admin on the old site, install the migration plugin and build the package. Download every file it gives you. If the browser download fails, take the same files with the host file manager.
2. Create the database on the new host and write down the name, user, password, and database host. If the installer expects an empty web root, do not install WordPress first. If the plugin imports into an existing site, install WordPress, then install the same plugin.
3. Upload the package to the new account. Open the installer on the temporary URL, or use the plugin import screen, and enter the new database details.
4. Log in on that temporary URL. Open the home page, one post, and wp-admin. Delete the installer file from the web root if it is still there.
5. Leave the public domain on the old host until those three pages look right.

How do you move WordPress with FTP and phpMyAdmin?

Use this when the plugin cannot finish. You are copying the same two parts: files and the database.

Download the site files with SFTP, including wp-content and wp-config.php. In phpMyAdmin on the old host, export the database. On the new host, create an empty database and user, then import the SQL. If the panel rejects the file, ask the new host to import it. Do not paste the SQL into a ticket.

Edit wp-config.php on the new copy. Set DB_NAME, DB_USER, DB_PASSWORD, and DB_HOST to the new database. Upload the files into the new web root. Open the temporary URL. A database connection error means those four values do not match the database you imported. Fix them and reload. Do not change DNS yet.

How do you fix URLs and broken images?

The copy can still store the old address, so images and menus point at the old host. Replace that address only after the temporary URL loads.

In Settings, then General, WordPress Address and Site Address should become the public domain after DNS points at the new host. Changing them earlier sends you back to the old server.

A search-replace has to keep serialized data intact. Replacing the URL in a text editor can break menus and widgets. Use the plugin replace step, or a database tool built for serialized strings, and replace only the old absolute URL. Reload a page and confirm the media library images appear.

Changing the domain name uses that same replace, with the new domain in place of the old one. Add the new domain on the new account before you test it. Keep the old domain online until the new one answers.

How do you point the domain after the copy works?

Lower the TTL on the website record a day before the switch. That shortens how long caches keep the old IP. It does not move the site by itself.

When the temporary URL is correct, point the domain at the new host. You can change nameservers, or change only the A record if mail must stay where it is. MX is mail. If you have not copied mailboxes, do not move the whole DNS zone.

Read the new hostnames on the welcome email before you type them. On many WebJi® accounts the pair is ns1.webji.in and ns2.webji.in. Confirm those names on your own welcome email.

Some networks update within a few hours. Others keep the old IP for up to 48 hours. Leave the old site online through that window. Visitors can still reach the old server while caches expire. That overlap is normal, and it is not a promise that nobody will see the old site.

What do you test before you cancel the old host?

Cancel the old plan only after a public lookup shows the new server and you have opened the live site, not the temporary URL alone.

• Home page, one post, and a page whose images used to break.
• wp-admin login, and Settings, then Permalinks, saved once if inner pages 404.
• One form or a test checkout.
• SSL on the new host, and one email sent to the domain if mail moved with the site.

If a page fails, fix the new copy or put the DNS record back. Do not delete the old account to force the switch.