Issues with Transferring Host’s…

  • tav1421

    (@tav1421)


    6 years, 6 months ago

    Hey, I thought it couldn’t hurt to post about some issues I’m having, and though it’s within in your wheelhouse I don’t think it’s necessarily a result of the theme.

    So to make this quick as I can easily go on, I want to go from Kickbutt hosting to Linode for my hosting needs. WP has been setup with Linode, installed Evolve, transferred the settings, imported the WP settings, and uploaded the media. However most if not all of the posts don’t have their pics included.

    Now my IT guy \ buddy thinks it could be related to the different DNS’s, if I’m even saying that right. I did a factory reset of WP, reinstalled evolve, reuploaded the media, and other variations and still, no luck. Naturally I would love some insight \ thoughts on the matter, as Linode does offer more than KBH, though I can’t complain about the latter’s services.

    Thanks in advance!

Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 19 total)
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  • donnaWPadmin

    (@donnawpadmin)

    6 years, 6 months ago

    Is the URL exactly the same? If not, update URLs within the posts with velvet blues plugin…DO NOT change the GUID’s. (there is a checkbox, don’t select it) Images not showing up is usually related to an address issue. If the site URLs are the same, did you change the folders you put the images in? Like did you go from monthly folders, to straight uploads directory? OR ?? something along those lines. (You did upload the images to the new host, right? sometimes we forget simple things)

    • This reply was modified 6 years, 6 months ago by donnaWPadmin.
    Thread Starter tav1421

    (@tav1421)

    6 years, 6 months ago

    Okay great, thanks for the help! As it is, the URLs are exactly the same… But you are right, I just did a bulk upload in one big folder, no separation between dates. Now I did this for a couple sites, and noticed the October pics are fine, but everything else before, not so much.

    But, and of course there’s a but, I didn’t find an option to create folders within the media library. I even tried a plugin but it won’t let me have a space between September 2017. So as always, any thoughts \ tips would be great! Appreciate your time.

    donnaWPadmin

    (@donnawpadmin)

    6 years, 6 months ago

    Well, there are multiple options, (best one would have been a database backup?) but I recommend putting ALL images in the uploads folder without the months (so you never have this issue again) and then changing the setting in Settings/Media to not use the month folders, and if you had month folders before the URLs are probably NOT the same …so put them all in one folder, and if they don’t show up after that, then use the velvet blues plugin to change the URLS of all the images (and the posts they are in) to represent the one folder path. Where is says to put the old and new URLS, put http(s)://yourURL.com/wp-content/uploads/* to http(s)://yourURL.com/wp-content/uploads …or there is also another plugin called search and replace. either one should work. Both are great plugins.

    There is also a very old plugin that is useful for folder and directory things sometimes, that is add-to-server plugin. It went for a couple years without being updated, and just when I thought i might have to dump it, they brought it back again! A one-of-a-kind plugin really…allows you “move” things “into” wordpress folder structure. (basically, great for images) …check that one out also.

    donnaWPadmin

    (@donnawpadmin)

    6 years, 6 months ago

    https://premium.wpmudev.org/blog/change-default-wordpress-uploads-folder/
    https://www.webhostinghero.com/fix-broken-image-links-url-change-wordpress/
    https://www.webhostinghero.com/how-to-change-the-upload-directory-in-wordpress/

    Now they are probably going to be upset, because this really isn’t a evolve issue…

    • This reply was modified 6 years, 6 months ago by donnaWPadmin.
    Romik84

    (@romik84)

    6 years, 6 months ago

    Hello

    Please check how to move one hosting to other hosting workpress site. It’s not related with any theme.
    Check below links for reference:
    http://www.wpexplorer.com/migrating-wordpress-website/
    http://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-move-wordpress-to-a-new-host-or-server-with-no-downtime/

    Thank you

    Thread Starter tav1421

    (@tav1421)

    6 years, 6 months ago

    Okay so, great stuff! First yes, I did back up everything that I could think of… Evolve settings, WP content, as well as the media. The major issue preventing me from really being able to implement your suggestions is that I can access both WP’s at the same time.

    With two WP’s, one on the old host and one with the new, I have to keep changing nameservers to access the WP for either one. Naturally that’s led to other issues, most notably being able to login to begin with.

    Let me ask you this; is there a way to backup \ transfer the media library with the dates of each file’s upload intact? (If I’m even asking the right question:)

    donnaWPadmin

    (@donnawpadmin)

    6 years, 6 months ago

    Oh come on! You can only have the domain active on one server/host at at time. And without a DATABASE backup there is only so much you can do. all those other little backups you did are basically JUNK. If you would have backed up the actual database, then you would have something to restore. If you have the site active on the old server, GET THE DATABASE BACKUP. Then go to the new server, and restore it. Take the domain DOWN from the old server, and activate it on the new host/server/dns.

    DATABASE DATABASE DATABASE DATABASE!!!!!!!

    You have been given all the answers. If you can’t do it, maybe you should hire someone…

    • This reply was modified 6 years, 6 months ago by donnaWPadmin.
    Thread Starter tav1421

    (@tav1421)

    6 years, 6 months ago

    @romik84 hi, just saw your post, sorry for the confusion!

    Romik84

    (@romik84)

    6 years, 6 months ago

    Welcome.

    Thread Starter tav1421

    (@tav1421)

    6 years, 6 months ago

    @donnawpadmin – Yep, this I am aware, hence me having the login issues, real pain let me tell you, LOL! And cool, honestly didn’t know the backups I had already were crap, but that you drove that point home with all the subtly of a a dump truck driving through a nitroglycerin plant, now I know:)

    Anyway look, you’re trying to help and know that I appreciate it, and I do have an IT guy who helps me with all this, but he’s learning as well. Now to the task of learning how to back up the database and go from there; praying my black thumb of tech doesn’t impede me further!

    donnaWPadmin

    (@donnawpadmin)

    6 years, 6 months ago

    Ok, maybe I was a little harsh. But glad you got the point at least. I guess this heat is driving me mad. 100 at the beach just doesn’t happen very often. :-O

    WP-migrate is a great backup plugin…if you want a paid one, backupbuddy is very popular as well. You can also get your database straight from the host …just go to phpmyadmin, and do an export and you will get whole thing.

    Then after you get it, you have to change whatever part of the URL has changed (like if the month folders in the uploads directory aren’t the same.)

    It’s not easy the first time you move a site. But if you learn it, you’ll have a skill you can help others with. But it’s not for everyone. Some people don’t have the patience for difficult processes is all I was saying, allbeit a little harshly maybe. All the info is here. There’s not much else that can be given you really.

    Are you paying this IT guy? Cause an IT guy that isn’t much further along than you, isn’t really worth his bread and butter you know…just a personal opinion there. You actually seem like a very nice person…and nice people get taken sometimes…be cautious, and wise, ok?

    Abigailm

    (@abigailm)

    6 years, 6 months ago

    OK, the easiest way to transfer a wordpress site is with good clone and duplicator plugin. I have used this one in the past, and never had any problems, but apparently it does fail in about 10% of cases.
    https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-clone-by-wp-academy/

    But this one seems to be more popular these days: https://wordpress.org/plugins/duplicator/ (more than 1 million downloads & updated within the past 2 weeks)

    Here is how I go about migrating a site:

    1. I set up a secondary subdomain on the old server, in addition to the existing one. So there will be two domains, http://www.site.name and old.site.name, both pointing to the same installation. DNS for both old.site.name and http://www.site.name points to old server.

    2. Same deal with new server, two subdomains pointing to the same folder/installation — http://www.site.name and new.site.name — DNS for new.site.name points to new server.

    3. Backup database on old server.

    4. Do a clean install of wordpress to new server,with new.site.name subdomain. Set primary admin user and password for wordpress to the same as on old server.

    5. Follow the migration routine which generally involves a full backup of old site database and tarring of old site files, and then unpacking files on new site along with restoring database. Directory structure will be identical that way.

    6. Test to make sure that new site at new.site.com is functioning, but don’t worry about internal links or attachments yet.

    7. On old site,in wordpress dashboard, change site name to from http://www.site.com to old.site.com

    8. On new site, in wordpress dashboard, change site name from new.site.com to http://www.site.com. Don’t do anything else yet.

    9. Change DNS to point http://www.site.com to new host.

    10. I usually make a teeny change to one of the sites on the home page, such as in the footer, so that later I will be able to tell which site I am on after the next step. For example, maybe I add “!!” to the page footer on the new site. It can be anything, just as long as I can easily and quickly tell the difference between site #1 and site #2.

    11. Have coffee. Take a shower. Whatever….. expect it to take at least 45 minutes for DNS to propagate. But it could take a whole lot longer Do not expect new site to work until that has happened.

    11. Once DNS has propagated, http://www.site.name should go to the new site. Sometimes everything works right away, sometimes I still need to use a plugin like Velvet Blues or another search & replace utility to update internal links.

    Once everything is tested and working then the old site can be taken down, but having DNS point to old.site.name for a few names makes it easier to compare and recover stuff from the old site that sometimes doesn’t make it to the new site.

    Anyway, that’s how I do it. I’d suggest deleting all the stuff from the new host and starting from scratch.. but up to you.

    Just in the future: moving a wordpress site from an old to new host is an intermediate, not beginner level skill. So next time get help before you start. Some hosting companies offer to do it for you, often without extra charge.

    donnaWPadmin

    (@donnawpadmin)

    6 years, 6 months ago

    Started out so well…then it got so overly complicated…I personally don’t think it takes that many steps, but to each his own.

    Abigailm

    (@abigailm)

    6 years, 6 months ago

    Well the extra steps are kind of a fail safe against things going wrong.

    I detailed my steps because @tav142 obviously has been having difficulty, and said that he was repeatedly changing nameservers so that he could access both WP installations. So I included the instructions as to how to accommodate that desire with only a single change to DNS.

    Thread Starter tav1421

    (@tav1421)

    6 years, 6 months ago

    @donnawpadmin – Hey NP, I live in Jersey and it feels like we’re entering Summer and not starting the fall! But I know it can be frustrating, as I’m on both ends of the IT spectrum if you can imagine, helping and being helped. So I know it can be a bit stressful when you make multiple suggestions and everyone is knocked down. Just the same, because XYorZ isn’t in someone’s wheelhouse, when they attempt to follow the suggestions and have problems for any number of reasons, that sucks too! (Essentially a no win)

    With allll that said, yes, I will definitely try those plugins, even the paid ones! And trust me, as much as I want to do this only once, it’ll probably have to be done again. I’ve already referred to the previous posts where you and @romik84 had helped me already.

    And no I know, that’s the thing, I really have to lock down and use these tools, because I HATE the feeling that I’m the only one going through this! Clearly I’m not, and there are paths through it. And my guy is a long time friend, who is a good bit techy and works in the field, but doesn’t necessarily work on this aspect alot. And lol, yes I am nice, (modest as well) but it doesn’t always come off genuine, when I really just have an ‘is what it is’ approach to things and don’t like the alternative to positive energy. (Who really does though?)

    Either way finger crossed!

    @abigailm – Hey, awesome! As it’s pushing 2:30 my time I’m not going to delve into your suggestion but coupled with everything else, I’d like to think I could do this alone let alone succeed with my IT guy… Keep y’all posted!

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