When it’s time to migrate WordPress site from one server to another it is challenging, especially for large e-commerce, business, or blog sites. A lot of things can happen in between to break your new site. If you are new to WordPress or have never done WordPress migration, you are in the right place.
In this article, we’ll be explaining step-by-step how to migrate WordPress site only with All-In-One WP Migration plugin without touching the actual WordPress files on the server.
What to know before you migrate WordPress site
If you are new to website migration, you should know and understand these few things:
- You should keep your site live on your old hosting while you are migrating it.
- Make sure your site is https:// on both, old and new domain/destination.
- If you are changing domain name, make sure that you redirect your domain name correctly.
- Before upgrading DNS as the last part of the migration, make sure you have a new mailbox set up for every single email account on your domain.
- Keep in mind that emails, databases, or any other files will not be migrated with your WordPress site.
There are few migration options to choose from, but in this article you are learning how to migrate WordPress site by using plugin.
If you are using the same domain name on both, old and new hosting accounts, you can see your site on the new hosting account by flushing your local DNS and adding your new server IP address on your computer. You can follow the instructions here on how to do that. If you are migrating to a new domain name, then you can skip this part.
Now, let’s get into details on how to migrate WordPress site with All-In-One WP Migration.
Step 1: Installation of All-in-One WP Plugin
Using a WordPress migration plugin makes our lives easier. All-in-one WP Migration is available in the repository on WordPress. Can be directly accessed from your WordPress installation, or you can download it, install it and activate it.
Login into your WordPress Admin pane on your WordPress site.
Mouse over the Plugins menu and click on “Add New”
On the top right corner in the search bar, type All-in-One WP Migration and click on “Install”
Once, the installation is completed, click on the “Activate” button.
Congratulation! You have successfully installed and activated All In One WP Migration plugin on your WordPress site.
Step 2: Exporting your WordPress site
All-in-one WP Migration plugin does not have complicated and advanced settings. Instead, this plugin it is very simple to use and easy to navigate.
This plugin exports only your WordPress content and database, instead of full WordPress itself.
Let’s see how it all works.
In the navigation, click on “All-in-One WP Migration“, and then select “Export“.
When you click on the Export menu, there is not a lot to do and there are not a lot of options.
If you click on Advanced Options you can choose what NOT to export. Be very careful what are you choosing here.
Next, click on the green “Hamburger menu” and from the drop-down menu click on “File”
Once you click on “File” you will have popup screen asking you where to save this exported file on your computer.
Once you choose your location, you will see a Download button at the end of the process. Depending on the size of the file and of course, the internet speed, this process may take some time.
Now, you have your website exported and ready to migrate it to your new hosting account.
Step 3: Importing WordPress site
Now that you got your WordPress site exported, it’s time to move on to the migrating process to the new hosting account.
In order to migrate WordPress site from one server to another using All-in-one WP Migration plugin, you need a fresh WordPress installation on the destination site. If it’s a completely new hosting account, then you just need to install fresh WordPress without having any additional backups or saving the existing files.
Once you have installed WordPress at your destination site, then the All-In-One WP migration plugin needs to be installed again. You can install All-In-One WP migration plugin the same way we did previously while we were exporting the existing site.
Once All-In-One WP migration plugin is installed, login in to your WordPress Admin panel, and navigate to the “All-in-One WP Migration” menu, and click the “Import” button.
Now, click on the green “Hamburger menu” and from the dropdown click on “File”
Next, you will have a popup notification that this process will overwrite any existing files. So, be VERY careful here and if you want to backup anything from the destination site, you can do it before you run this import.
Once the import process is completed, you can click on the “Finish” button.
Once you have logged in, you will be redirected to the “Permalink Settings” page. Do not change anything here, just scroll down and click on the button “Save Changes”
If you are not automatically redirected on this page, you can do it by navigating to the “Settings” menu and click on “Permalinks” menu.
In our demonstration we used Custom structure for our links, but your website it could be set differently. For example: Day and name, Month and name… etc. That’s why it’s recommended not to change anything here, just click on Save changes.
That’s all. This is how you can migrate WordPress site from one server to another.
Search and replace old URLs
If you migrate WordPress site to a new or different domain name, you should read this step, if not, then you can skip this part.
One issue that people always seems to have when moving their site to a new domain name is with their URLs that are inserted in posts or pages.
Why this is an issue?
Well, when you migrate WordPress site, your domain name will be replaced in the settings only and of course, every post or page URLs you have will be replaced as well. But, if you have links to other posts that are included in existing content or inserted images directly by pointing to a URL on the server, these links will break when your site is moved over to a new domain
You can fix/replace these URLs with Velvet Blues Update URLs plugin. This plugin is really simple to use and there are not a lot of settings. Simply you have to add your old URL and new URL and let the plugin do the work. It takes a couple of seconds only for your URLs to be replaced.
Conclusion
As you can see, when broken down into small and simple steps, the migration process isn’t that difficult. You just have to be very careful at each step and you can have successful WordPress migration.
Have you ever migrated your WordPress website? Let us know your experience with the process in the comments section below!
