Moving a wordpress site

[RazorNF]

What's the best way to completely move a Wordpress based site?

I'm familiar with the export/import, but am looking to hear from those with experience with any of the various wp backup/restore services, plugins, etc.

The scenario is that one host has a custom control panel, the other has cpanel.

Can it be done in few steps without having to manually re-install/reconfigure the theme and each plugin one by one?

 

[iowadawg]

One, full and complete backup to your computer! ALWAYS!!

Two ways, from withing the cpanel (and to be honest, I have yet to do it correctly).
Upload via ftp.

Now, the only real changes I have ever made is the config,php file to the new mysql.

Really quite easy.

 

[matrigaldo]

I use a commercial plugin, BackupBuddy, it works great.
But however there is also a free plugin, BackWPup, i'm using it too, it also allows you to automatically schedule the upload of your backup on Amazon S3 (and some other similar services), exactly like BackupBuddy (even if BackupBuddy is more professional and full of features, but it's not free).

Try BackWPup but if you don't feel comfortable with it, then BackupBuddy will be great for you.

 

[carob]

Your site has two parts:

1. A folder on the server containing all the files - wp, themes, plugins.
Download it, then upload it to the right location on new server.

2. A database. If you can access PHPmyadmin on your server - should be in Cpanel - you just export the DB as a text file in .sql extension, then import it on the new server.

The problem would be if Cpanel uses your username as a prefix to the DB names, then you do have to make changes to reflect that since username is different on new server.

 

[DU]

Wordpress move plugin works 80%

Blue velvet fixes all links id domain changes if you just manually move.

Rebuild/Empty cache and friendly links.

Test test test.

The config file contains the DB access its very simple update.

 

[RazorNF]

Thanks for the tips!

Here are the links for the tools mentioned in this thread for others who may also be interested

http://pluginbuddy.com/purchase/backupbuddy/
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/backwpup/
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wordpress-move/
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/velvet-blues-update-urls/

 

[badluck13]

There are also some professional WordPress move services

like:
wpmove [dot] me (email them on move[at]wpmove[dot]me)
or
blogcrafted [dot] com

I tried WPMove, they have extraordinary response time and great quality service.

 

[carob]

Before doing anything, make a copy of your original WP folder on the server and make a copy of your WP database - this will take you no time and means you can always go back to where you started if your chosen method does not work.

Just bear in mind for whatever reason sometimes a plugin does not work correctly, especially if a WP version is too new or too old for it or it conflicts with another plugin.