Moving your WordPress site
Last Updated: January 21, 2022
Things change, and sometimes your domain name and hosting is one of them. If you have a WordPress site to move, the process can seem daunting, but do not fear; it is possible.
Please note though, the following is only when you are utilizing a hosting package with cPanel capabilities (name.com/hosting) If you are trying to change the domain on a stand-alone Wordpress Hosting package (name.com/wordpress-hosting), this would not be possible, as that domain name cannot change after the hosting is set up.
If you are keeping the same domain name (just switching to a different hosting server or hosting provider) this is a simple process of moving the files. Refer to this section of the WordPress article on the subject for more details.
If you need to change the domain name that your WordPress site resides at, this is quite a bit tricker, as the domain name is built into your files in a lot of places. Refer to this section of the WordPress article to find out how to do this.
You will need to follow all the steps in the article above to change the location of the files in your hosting plan. If you skipped any of the steps, first refer to the article as it covers fixes for most of the common mistakes.
If you changed the domain name on the WordPress installation through your WordPress admin panel, but did not follow all the steps, you can fix it in phpMyAdmin in the cPanel. Once inside of phpMyAdmin, click the database name on the left, then click wp_options. The first field should be the URL of the WordPress site. Just click and change the URL back to the original domain name. This is also where you can fix it if you have accidentally added www. before the domain name or if you were trying to force it to use only https://
WordPress also offers the All-in-One migration plugin that many of our users find helpful. Refer to wordpress.org.
Note: We cannot migrate WordPress for you or troubleshoot any errors in the WordPress changing process.
