Moving your blog to a different webhosting account

If you need to move your blog to another web hosting account or domain, the process is a little tricky. A lot of people think they can just download all their WordPress files, then upload them in the new location and it will work, but that is not correct.

A WordPress blog consists of two parts working together: 1) a bunch of files inside the folder where your blog is installed, and 2) a **FTP- database -FTP** which stores all your posts, comments, and settings.

If you move one without the other, things won't work.

Moving a blog is too complex to explain in a simple tutorial, but we'll give the basic steps here to help you figure it out if you're very good with web stuff. If you need to move a blog and don't feel you can do the below steps, your best bet is to hire someone to do it for you. We do not provide this service, but we recommend a company called Wordpress HelpCenter. For a reasonable fee they will transfer your blog over to a different hosting account and make sure all of your settings are properly adjusted. Just contact them below using the code provided so that they will know you are a ProPhoto user. Also, after they're done, drop us a note to let us know how your experience was with them.

Steps to move your blog:

1. First, create a full export of your WordPress database. The best way to do this is with phpMyAdmin, it's the same process as backing up your database. Click here for a post describing how to do that from the WordPress site. You can also find some plugins that will create a full database backup/export. This one will, for instance.

2. If your blog address is changing, you're going to need to filter your database and correct all the paths, or none of your images will show up on your new blog. This is because all of the paths to the images (including your blog address) are stored in the database. I usually open the .sql database export file in a text editor with a good find/replace function and replace the old blog adress with the new everywhere it is found. You also need to make sure that the "wpurl" and "home" options in the "options" table have the correct new address.

3. Next, download all your WordPress files, every last one of them, using FTP.

4. On your new website location, upload all your WordPress files.

5. On your new website server, create a new mySQL database and import the database export file you created (and filtered) in steps 1, 2.

6. Edit your wp-config.php file to make sure your new database name, user, and host info is correct.

If you have questions about the above steps:

Don't comment or email us – we don't support or walk people through these steps. They are complicated and best left to someone who knows PHP, mySQL and website administration. If the above info is not enough to help you get your blog moved, you'll need to hire someone. Thanks!