Hello! In this post, I will be discussing the process of manually moving a WordPress site. Whether you’re looking to change hosting providers or create a local copy of your site for testing purposes, moving your site can seem like a daunting task.

Overall, while manually moving your WordPress site may seem intimidating, it’s a straightforward process that can be accomplished with just a few simple steps. By following the steps outlined in this post, you can easily move your site to its new location and continue to enjoy all of the benefits that WordPress has to offer.

Backup/Download:

1. Download your WordPress folders and files via FTP. (wp-admin, wp-content etc.)
2. Login to your cPanel and go to phpMyAdmin and click on your WordPress database name.
3. Click on Export tab.
4. Click on Go button to start download.

Upload/Move:

1. Open wp-config.php in text/html editor and note/write down DB_NAME (Database Name), DB_USER (Database User) and DB_PASSWORD (Database Password).
2. Now upload your WordPress files via FTP to your new cPanel.
3. Login to your new cPanel and create MySQL Database. (For creating databases check out our post how to create mysql database.)
4. Now go to phpMyAdmin, select the database you’ve created.
5. Now simply drag and drop the database .sql file.
6. Point domain to your new Hosting cPanel and your new site will be live after the DNS is resolved.

Moving to New Domain:

If you are moving to a new hosting and new domain then you will have to do the following extra steps.

1. Navigate to phpMyAdmin and click on database name.
2. Find prefix_options.
3. Edit siteurl and home, enter your new domain url and click Go to save.

Prefix can be anything, I have added prefix_ just for example. You can find the prefix in wp-config.php file.

$table_prefix = 'prefix_';

Moving WordPress Multisite:

If you are moving Multisite WordPress installation then method will be all same. The only difference is that you will have to search and edit prefix_options for each site. For example if you have 3 sites then you will have prefix_options, prefix_2_options and prefix_3_options in your database.