No, seriously, after almost two decades of making and migrating WordPress websites, and trying every method published in tutorials or offered by hosting companies, this is my go-to method that is most foolproof, has the least number of problems, and has never failed. Yet.
So here’s the quickest and best (in my opinion) method of wordpress migration.
Honorable mentions
Duplicator: This is a really good plugin. It packages up the whole site and generates an installer for you. This used to be my go-to method
Migrator plugins: Hosting companies have started offering this tool so it’s easier for people on their hosting accounts to move sites around. WP Engine, for example, has this type of plugin, and it’s relatively easy to move sites once you add the API. Not bad. I liked the cloudways one as well. Pretty nifty. If you use one of these to migrate to your hosting, you can share this to your friends and disregard the rest of the article.
Manual migration: Copy all the files, edit the mySQL file, upload the files, and upload the edited mySQL file. Not a bad way if you’re OK with editing the mySQL databases. I personally did not enjoy the .. err.. raw-ness of the whole ordeal. One slip up and everything breaking is not something I’d like to be doing every time I finish a website.
The quickest and best way to migrate.
Yep, some people might have guessed it, All In One WP Migration.
OK, so, it’s not just a direct migration. I’ve had trouble with larger file sizes and servers rejecting them or stalling. So here’s how I do it.
Migration involves two things.
1. The files.
2. The database.
I use Ai1 to do the database, and I migrate the files myself.
A quick bullet point list
- Source site: Install All In One WP Migration, export just the database.
- Source site: Archive the theme, plugin, and uploads folders found in /wp-content of the source site, and download it.
- Destination site: Install a fresh WP instance, use the same login.
- Destination site: Upload the archive in /wp-content, and extract.
- Destination site: Activate All in One, upload the migration file. Double save the permalinks.
Here’s a 15 minute video of me walking you through this.
Extra notes: Here are things you could also check when migrations don’t work as planned.
– php version: should be the same
– domain: sometimes www get in the way
Any other questions or problems, leave a comment and we’ll see if we can fix it!
