Thanks for your help. I didn’t intend to create a new website; things just turned out that I needed my old website running again. I didn’t want to make any changes, just get the site up and running as it was. I have no connection with my previous hosting provider since the site has been down for several months. I’m not very experienced with migrating a website, so I thought it would be easier than it’s turned out to be.
I have 5 folders: cache, cache-, plugins, themes, and uploads, along with the following files: index.php, package.json, wp-config.php, and database.sql. The uploads folder contains images.
I placed the cache, cache-, plugins, themes, and uploads folders into wp-content under htdocs and imported the database.sql file into the MySQL database I created. Are these the correct locations for these folders and files?
Also, I noticed that even though I updated the database hostname, name, and username in the wp-config.php file, after uploading it to the htdocs folder, the changes were reversed, and it reverted to the original content instead of the updated version.
My approach was very simple. I installed WordPress and I replaced the folders with those of my old site in wp-content folder/htdocs and the files in htdocs. Imported database.sql to the database I created in MySQL and updated the wp-config.php. I also noticed that even though I updated the database hostname, name, and username in the wp-config.php file, when I uploaded it to the htdocs folder, the changes were reversed, and it reverted to the original content instead of the updated version.
That’s the “transplantation” route I was referring to. That’s definitely the more error prone way to migrate a website in my opinion.
To be clear, installing any website software should only ever be done to create a new website. If you want to migrate an existing website, do not install anything. Just copy the files and database over. Don’t try smashing two WordPress installations into each other and hope that you get the right content out at the end, it doesn’t end well.
Lacking a .wpress backup file to test for myself and using ChatGPT to fill in the blanks, I think that a .wpress actually contains the entire WordPress installation. Which is good, because it means you don’t need to do any transplantation.
Based on that, you can just do the following:
Delete everything you’ve setup right now. Delete the Softaculous installation, delete the files and delete the database. A clean slate will help us avoid making a bigger mess.
Take the files from the extracted .wpress file and upload them to your htdocs folder using FileZilla. Make sure to upload the right files and directories to the right location. It’s correct if the htdocs folder contains files like index.php and wp-activate.php, and directories like wp-content and wp-includes. Do not upload the database.sql file.
Create a new database from the client area, go into phpMyAdmin and import the database.sql file into it.
Have a look at the table names and look for a common prefix. As far as I can tell, AIO WP mangles this to SERVMASK_PREFIX_, but check this for yourself.
Edit the wp-config.php you just uploaded through the file manager. You’ll need to edit:
The DB_NAME, DB_USER, DB_PASSWORD and DB_HOST settings to match the credentials of the database you created before.
The $table_prefix setting, which should be the prefix you found in step 4.
If you performed all of these steps correctly, you should now have a fully working WordPress website exactly as you left it.
Thanks. I expected something like this at the beginning. If I need to update some information on the site, how can I do that in that case? Do I need to install WP after the website runs?
Before doing so, would it be worth trying to update the wp-config.php file again in the current setup? The last time I updated the database hostname, name, and username in the wp-config.php file, the changes were reversed after I uploaded it to the htdocs folder. The file reverted to the original content instead of keeping my updated version. Why did that happen? I dragged it from my desktop to the htdocs folder after deleting the original wp-config.php file in FileZilla.
The site was prepared in WP and not sure if the theme and all the plugins are still operational. Also, I wanted to take out / change the email option on the site as no email service belongs to the domain currently at Infinity.
Fortunately no. You’ll already be able to use it at that point. “Install” really just means to put in all of a script or software’s files in the proper place, but that’ll already be done if you’re migrating a WordPress site from elsewhere.
Thanks. Not sure what to delete and where? Do it in FileZilla? There are the following things in the main directory: Folders: cpanel, pki, softaculous, htdocs, mail, mydomain. Files: htaccess, lastlogin, override. In mydomain: htdocs - in htdocs WP stuff. My site is under mydomain in htdocs.
Thanks for the help. I did everything as you suggested. I cleaned up the htdocs folder under my domain where the website would go and deleted the database to start with a clean slate. Then, I created a new database and imported the database.sql file from the backed-up WP website. After that, I uploaded all the folders and files from the downloaded website to the htdocs folder under my domain.
I’m not sure what the problem could be, but I’m getting the following error message when I try to go to mydomain.com/wp-admin:404 Not Found - The page you were looking for could not be found! If I enter my website’s domain, I get a white blank screen.
The following folders and files were uploaded into htdocs: cache, cache-, plugins, themes, uploads folders, and index.php, package.json, and wp-config.php files. That’s all I had in the backup folder. I updated the wp-config.php file before uploading it.
I expected that the website wouldn’t work at first since the themes and plugins most likely need updates after not being in operation for many months, but I don’t understand why I’m getting the error page when I try to go to the WP dashboard. Did I miss something? What could the problem be?
To clearly state again: DO NOT INSTALL WORDPRESS!!!
If you try to access your website after doing all this and you get an installation screen, then do not fill it in. It means your wp-config.php file is missing or incorrect. What you then need to do is update the wp-config.php to link the site to your existing data. You don’t want to generate a new config.php file with a fresh set of data, because that’s what “installing” will do.
I checked your account and I see a few different issues.
It seems that I was wrong about the structure of the files you had, and your backup didn’t actually contain the WordPress core files. You only have the plugins, themes and uploads folders.
At this point, I would suggest doing the following:
Upload the extracted files to the htdocs folder of your website (the same folder where you uploaded the other files). You can safely overwrite existing files.
Move the plugins, themes and uploads folder into the wp-content folder.
At this point, the files are correct.
The only thing that’s not correct yet is the table prefix.
Thanks. I followed your suggestion and uploaded the missing folders and files from the downloaded WordPress installation. I also added the $table_prefix setting, as it was the common prefix in the table names. However, when I visit the website, there is still a blank page. When I go to mywebsite.com - Diese Website steht zum Verkauf! - Informationen zum Thema mywebsite., I’m prompted with the WordPress installation/setup page.
The site uses a contact form, which might not be compatible with Infinity’s restrictions on PHP mail, and other plugins and themes likely need to be updated. To make adjustments and get the site operational, I should edit it through the WordPress dashboard, but how can I do this?
Shouldn’t I be able to log in to the WP dashboard with my old username and password after the migration?
I checked your website and I see it’s indeed returning a blank page. But when I check the Network tab, I also see it’s responding successfully.
I hope you don’t mind, but I went into your account and attempted to make some changes that should help you get your website up and running again. This should be a bit faster than instructing you to do everything yourself.
What I did was:
Remove the duplicate $table_prefix line. You added a new line in between the database configuration values, but there was already a line setting this value lower down in the config file, which took precedence over the line you added.
Go into the database to disable HTTPS for your website. Your website doesn’t have an SSL certificate installed, so this prevented access to wp-admin. If you want to install an SSL certificate so you can use HTTPS again, please see this guide: How to get Free SSL (HTTPS) on InfinityFree
Run the WordPress database updater. I don’t know what version of WordPress your website was previously using, but it must have been quite a bit older than the current version installed.
Import the installation into Softaculous so I could login to the wp-admin area of your site to check for more issues.
Install the WordPress default Twenty Twenty-Five theme to check if this would help make your website accessible. Unfortunately, it didn’t help.
At this point, the wp-admin was working again, but your website itself still wasn’t.
Then I noticed something else. You didn’t do this:
You uploaded the WordPress core files, but didn’t overwrite existing files. So the index.php file of your website was empty. I replaced this with the index.php from a fresh download of WordPress. And now your website is loading again!
The website is still not working correctly. This is because all your plugins are disabled. They are also many years outdated, and probably don’t work well with recent versions of WordPress and PHP. You should probably update all plugins and themes and enable them again to restore your website.
Thanks for your help. The site is up and running, and the content has been uploaded. I still need to fix a few issues, as some plugins are probably outdated, but at least everything is in place.
