-The simple version.
1) In the current installation go to Tools -> Export, and export an XML copy of your WordPress Database.
2) In the current installation Download your wp-content folder.
3) In the cPanel use Simple Scripts to install WordPress. See: http://tutorials.bluehost.com/wordpress/
4) In the newly made installation go to Tools -> Import, and import your previously exported XML file. See: http://tutorials.bluehost.com/movewordpress/
5) Upload your previously backed-up/downloaded wp-content folder and overwrite the wp-content folder which was created by Simple Scripts in the installation.
6) Log into your dashboard for the new installation, select your theme, double-check your plugins, and re-save your Permalinks settings(even if they already seem to be set correctly).
-The detailed version.
A) Before getting started you should check a few things. As a pre-warning, do *not* cancel hosting at wherever your old installation may be until you have confirmed that the newly imported WordPress setup with BlueHost is working properly. You may need to go back and get more things from the previous location should you find you missed something.
B) Make sure your current installation is running the latest version of WordPress. If it is not, deactivate your plugins and then upgrade it, or at least make sure it is running a fairly new version and you can upgrade it from Simple Scripts later.
1) Log into your current WordPress dashboard and navigate to Tools, and then click Export and “Download Export File.”
2) Using FTP, connect to your current account and download your wp-content folder. This folder will contain all of your themes, plugins, images, videos, etc. (If you have images which you have manually referenced from another location besides in your wp-content, you may want to change their location and reference location to be somewhere in your wp-content/uploads directory)
3) In the BlueHost cPanel use Simple Scripts to install WordPress. Make sure to install the exact same version of WordPress you were running at the previous location. You can upgrade with Simple Scripts later, but for now, the two versions must match. See: http://tutorials.bluehost.com/wordpress/
4) In the newly made installation go to Tools, then to Import, and then to WordPress and search for and import your previously exported XML file. See: http://tutorials.bluehost.com/movewordpress/ (*Note that if you are importing a rather large file, you may need to increase your max_upload_filesize in your php.ini file. See: http://helpdesk.bluehost.com/index.php/kb/article/000110)
5) Using FTP, upload your previously backed-up/downloaded wp-content folder and overwrite the wp-content folder which was created by Simple Scripts in the installation. If you compressed your wp-content directory, you will need to uncompress it before uploading it. If you are not familiar with using FTP, download the FileZilla client from http://filezilla-project.org/ , then see: http://tutorials.bluehost.com/filezilla/
6) Log into your dashboard for the new installation, select your theme, double-check your plugins, and re-save your Permalinks settings(even if they already seem to be set correctly).
-Aftermath of the Migration
After finishing, you should click around on your site and make sure that things are working properly. If you are having problems, try deactivating some plugins. Another warning is to be careful on which plugins you choose. Always try to keep plugin-usage to a minimum and carefully choose plugins which have been tested and proven with more recent versions of WordPress.
If you were not already running the latest version of WordPress, deactivate your plugins, set your theme to the default theme and begin upgrading. Check your site between each upgrade and make sure that standard features are working properly. If you find a plugin breaks something after an upgrade, you may need to search for another plugin to replace the functionality of the plugin which was breaking things.
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(On a separate note, if you just changed your URL too, you will likely need to make some post-settings, or site-URL settings changes. For help with this, see: http://wordpress.shadowlantern.com/how-change-wordpress-url-phpmyadmin/
10 Comments until now
My old hosting company already deleted the account! All I have is my kermilia.sql file. I can’t go back and get the database backup through my old site and wordpress will not let me import my file. Help me?
You can still import your database using that .sql file you have. Follow steps 2 and 3 above first. After doing that you should have a clean installation of WordPress.
Next look for PHPMyAdmin in your cPanel and click that. Select your database from the list on the left. If you are unsure of which database to choose, look at your wp-config.php file from the new installation and it should show you which database to pick.
After selecting your database, click the “select all” option at the bottom of each of your tables, then use the drop-down menu to the right to “Empty” all the tables.
Next go to the Import tab and browse for your database on your computer, select it, then click “Go”.
It should import your database successfully. If you have any further problems, it may be with the table prefix. Double check the table prefix in wp-config.php and make sure it matches the tables you have in your database.
I have successfully moved my blog from an old hosting company to a new one. Everything transferred correctly (or so it seemed) and the blog appears and functions as it had previously.
I’m able to post just fine, but what I haven’t been able to do is upload new media. I keep getting errors that the parent directory (to my uploads folder) might not be writable. My hosting company says the permissions are set correctly (to 755).
In the transfer, I used FTP to download all site content; then I uploaded my ‘uploads’ folder, plugins folder and themes folder.
Any thoughts on this?
Brianne. It is probably a problem with your upload path. In your dashboard go to Settings > Miscellaneous, and set your upload path to wp-content/uploads (no forward slash in front of wp-content)
I recently moved a WordPress site to a new server and now my NextGen gallery does not display photos when I click on thumbnails. The loading icon displays but it never completes the action. I’m currently using JW Image Rotator for the slideshow feature. The imagerotator.swf file is in the uploads root but my pages are not seeing it. I turned the loading icon on and off and to see if the site was accessing this file and nothing changed in display. I can’t find a NextGen setting to correct the problem.
I hope you can help.
Reggie
Reginald: I’m not sure what the problem is without seeing it. I’m guessing the path to the images may have changed. One thing to try doing is to rename your nexgen gallery directory within the plugins directory and then install NexGen anew and see if it works. Also test adding some new images and see if they show up. If you want to provide me a link to your site, I can take a look and see if I can guess what the problem might be.
Awesome web site, I had not noticed wordpress.shadowlantern.com before during my searches!
Keep up the great work!
I followed all above directions and all my post/comments moved over correctly to the temp url. However when i activate my previous theme, none of the customizations (widgets and header and colors) are not showing up. Any insight? Thanks
Tommy, those settings should be stored in the database, however, the WordPress XML export may not be getting them. If possible, try getting the full backup of your database via .sql format, as explained in my above comment.
The .sql import should fix that. For help with importing this, see: https://my.bluehost.com/cgi/help/161
(Or, if your host has SSH: https://my.bluehost.com/cgi/help/112 )
Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.
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