How to transfer your WordPress site to cPanel (GoDaddy)

Josh Hardman
Jul 28, 2017 · 4 min read

The following is a re-post of a guide I wrote a couple of years ago, and as such may be dated. If you have trouble, please contact me.

Moving your website can be daunting; and the prospect of losing content is a worry for even the most experienced site-owner. However, the below 4-step guide aims to outline in a very simple fashion the steps required to move your WordPress site to GoDaddy’s cPanel hosting (or, any other cPanel hosting most likely). I have designed this workflow in a way that removes any chance of data-loss; as backing-up the website files and database is the very first thing we will do.

Assuming you have your cPanel account set up, and access to your WordPress admin area, just follow four steps below…

Step 1: Backup your WordPress site

  • Login to your WordPress (WP) admin area
  • Install & activate ’BackUpWordPress’ plugin
  • NB: You may have to update WordPress version in order to activate the plugin
  • Once installed & activated, head to tools -> backups
  • Head to settings, change the following:
  • Backup: Both Database & Files
  • Schedule: Manual Only
  • Hit ‘run now’
  • Download the file and save it locally (it is also saved in the wp-content/backupwordpress… area of the site’s root folder — can be accessed via FTP etc.)
  • NB: unzip the file to check the contents are all as they should be, before deleting your site!

Step 2: Detach your domain from the old hosting package

  • Head to the admin area of your current hosting plan — look for ‘hosted domains’ or equivalent
  • Select the domain, then click ‘remove domain’ and confirm
  • NB: this can take some time — up to 24 hours, but usually a few minutes

Step 3: Migrating your domain to cPanel (GoDaddy)

  • Head to ‘Add-on Domains’ and enter the details of the domain you are moving
  • Subdomain is the folder under the cPanel root where you would like its files (WP files) to be stored — choose a name you’ll recognise
  • Click ‘Add Domain’

This next part of Step 3 — Installing WordPress — is optional, as we will be copying the WP files later. However, I highly recommend it, as the WP installation process configures your folders and directories properly.

  • Head to the ‘Applications’ area of cPanel
  • Install WordPress to the domain we just added
  • IMPORTANT — Use the same admin credentials as your previous site, otherwise this will necessitate changes to wp-config files — which is a complicating factor.
  • Disable two factor auth for now — this may interfere with the access files in your backup
  • Install (wait a minute or so)
  • Verify the install works by heading to your domain and attempting to login

Step 4: Restoring WP files

  • Head to the file manager in the cPanel area, and select your domain
  • Rename the folder containing your fresh WP install (this will be named as the ‘subdomain’ you chose in Step 3) under public_html — suffix it with ‘fresh install’, or something similar for identification purposes.
  • create a new folder with the subdomain name of your site (i.e. the name of the folder your just renamed)
  • upload your zipped backup & database files here (this should be one file)
  • extract your zipped backup
  • refresh your site to see if it has worked — you may have to wait a while for changes to propagate — don’t panic if you see an error or ‘pageok’ — wait a little while.
  • attempt login

You’re done!

This method is not the quickest; as I insist on installing a fresh WordPress to the cPanel first. However, it is pretty safe. As long as you check that your WordPress backup in step 1 is all there (unzip the backup and have a quick look), and so long as it is saved locally to your drive, you will not lose any of your data.

Edit: Help! My Database isn’t working!

After I posted this, someone contacted me saying that their site was displaying a database issue. This is common, especially when migrating sites, and is to do with the fact that the database host often changes when moving your site from one host to another.

To fix this issue, you need to edit the wp-config file in the file manager, or via FTP, to reflect your new database credentials.

The best way to handle this is to head to the ‘MySql’ area of cPanel, and then locate the database associated with your site (You can see this by going to Applications > WordPress > click ‘database’ under your site). Change the password of the user associated with this database to something you’ll remember. Next, open up the database (either via PHPMyAdmin, or via the Applications > WordPress route), and ‘Import’ your old database, which will be located in your backup files as a .sql file.

Now, head to your wp-config file via file manager and change the DB name, username, password and hostname. Hostname for cPanel by GoDaddy is ‘localhost’

Hope this clears up some issues people are having, however I can go into more detail if needed.

If you have any issues or questions, contact me using the comments below or email me.

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