Install from subdomain

I copied the wp directory into the public_html file and updated the site settings…

…the site pulls up a page that doesn’t have the styles attached…

I think that means WordPress is finding the database for content and menus but it is not finding your theme.

If I try to log into the WordPress admin, I get an error message: can’t find wp-login.

With ‘ RewriteBase /wp/ ‘ and the lower line showing the same being the keys, this might fix both issues:

@ http://joycastro.com/wp/.htaccess

# BEGIN WordPress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /wp/
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /wp/index.php [L]
</IfModule>
# END WordPress

If not, try searching your database for *exact matches* of http://joycastro.com and http://joycastro.com/ to see whether either might still be there without being http://joycastro.com/wp . If so, this might take care of that:

cPanel > phpMyAdmin SQL

note: Edit ‘pref’ (the table prefix in three places below) to your own value (as in $table_prefix = '???_'; in wp-config.php), and then change ‘http://www.olddomain.com’ and ‘http://www.newdomain.com’ as required (three places each and with no trailing slashes)

UPDATE pref_options SET option_value = replace(option_value, 'http://www.olddomain.com', 'http://www.newdomain.com') WHERE option_name = 'home' OR option_name = 'siteurl';
UPDATE pref_posts SET guid = replace(guid, 'http://www.olddomain.com', 'http://www.newdomain.com');
UPDATE pref_posts SET post_content = replace(post_content, 'http://www.olddomain.com', 'http://www.newdomain.com');

If not, you might have a theme or plugin using “absolute server path” and will need to be deactivated, uninstalled and re-installed so it can update its own path.

At your server you have a public “root” folder that might be named /public_html/ or /htdocs/ or whatever name the system at your host uses, and that is where a Primary Domain is typically located. For a WordPress installation in that location, the two relevant lines would be like this:

RewriteBase /

RewriteRule . /index.php [L]

Your sub-domain installation is in a sub-folder of your public “root”, so its own httaccess needs that different path:

RewriteBase /wp/

RewriteRule . /wp/index.php [L]

So overall, you have this:

public_root/.htaccess and Primary Domain
public_root/wp/.htaccess and sub-domain installation

And then at that point, each installation is independent of the other — each has its own completely-unique set of files — and does not even know the other exists.