You need to do a find and replace on your old url, replacing with your new url.
for example find all instances of
http://www.yourwebsite.com/subdirectory/
with
http://www.yourwebsite.com
otherwise all the links in the admin and public facing versions of your site will point to the subdirectory version of your website.
Personally I find it easier to find/replace on the backup.sql filerather than in the database as you have to write find and replace sql commands.
Try setting the urls to the correct location with one of these methods:
http://codex.wordpress.org/Changing_The_Site_URL
And use a search and replace tool to replace all other instances of your old url: http://interconnectit.com/124/search-and-replace-for-wordpress-databases/
But before you do, make a backup of your database: http://codex.wordpress.org/Backing_Up_Your_Database
thank you candell. How do you “find/replace” on the backup.sql file ?
and thank you keesiemeijer. I went with your first option and added the two lines to the wpconfig.php file — which worked.
I now have access the root directory/new WP install wp-admin function. Many thanks !
Unrelated to my original post, and I’m happy to start a new thread, what didn’t get fixed were the missing tabs in my wp-admin/dashboard
My original WP install in a site subdirectory had a problem with missing tabs. It only showed Posts, Media, Comments, Tools and unusually Profile.
Missing were Links, Pages, Appearance, Plugin, Users, Settings
I thought a fix would be to do a fresh WP install in a different directory and then import the old database.
Under the fresh WP install, all the tabs were present (except Profile, which I don’t think usually shows anyway). But they disappear again after the DB import. It seems like the DB import is bringing the problem with it.
Can you go to the plugins page by putting this after your site’s url /wp-admin/plugins.php when logged in (www.example.com/wp-admin/plugins.php)
If you can, deactivate all plugins to see if this resolves the problem? If this works, re-activate the plugins one by one until you find the problematic plugin(s).
thanks for your quick reply here keesiemeijer !
my original problematic URL is http://www.example.com/blog/wp-admin
my new WP install is at http://www.example.com/wp-admin
following your recommendation, I logged into my original http://www.example.com/blog/wp-admin and going to plugins.php brings back this error message :
“You do not have sufficient permissions to access this page.”
I won’t be able to test the new blog until later since I’ll have to import the old database again. For the newer install at http://www.example.com I reinstalled the new DB so I could verify the dashboard tabs were coming and going with the DB installs.
Hello again keesimeijer
An hour later from my last post, I imported the old DB into the new install, and tried your recommendation, this time on the new install with the old DB imported.
I got the same error message : “You do not have sufficient permissions to access this page.” — the same as when I tried calling up http://www.example.com/blog/wp-admin/plugins.php after logging into wp-admin.
The permissions problem seems to be traveling with the database ?
My goal is to get back to operating under a clean WP install with all the dashboard tabs showing, but also keeping the posts from the original blog, which I can’t access any more administratively thru the original WP install.
http://a1mortgagesolutions.com (new install)
http://a1mortgagesolutions.com/blog (original install with corrupted dashboard)
Keesimeijer : taking your lead, I explored a bit further. I logged into my original blog’s wp-admin and then went to users.php and got this message “cheating, uh?”
Try this:
– resetting the plugins folder by using FTP or whatever file management application your host provides. Sometimes, an apparently inactive plugin can still cause problems.
– switching to the default theme by renaming your current theme’s folder in wp-content/themes using FTP or whatever file management application your host provides.
– re-uploading all files & folders – except the wp-content folder from a fresh download of WordPress. by using FTP or whatever file management application your host provides. (manual upgrade)
Thank you again keesiemeijer
You’ve given me plenty to work thru. Much appreciated.
The imbedded links in your replies were very helpful and a nice touch.
