In the tutorial: How to Manually Migrate a WordPress Website with Elementor. We have already shown how you can migrate a website using the WordPress Duplicator plugin.
Although this WordPress Plugin makes things easier, some might need to control the process themselves by manipulating the code.
So if you have a particularly large website, or if you just want to do things manually for some reason, it's not that difficult to manually migrate your WordPress website either.
For this guide, we won't also go in depth because we only recommend this method if you are already comfortable with some of the more technical workings of WordPress.
Step 0: Some preliminaries to observe
Before starting this tutorial, you will need to:
- Make a backup of your website
- Have the FTP credentials of the hosts of the existing website and the one to which you want to migrate your website
And if you change domains, you must also direct your new domain's name servers to the new website's server.
Next, here's how to migrate WordPress manually.
Step 1: Move files to the new server
There are several ways to move files from your website to the new server. One way would be to upload all the files using FTP and then upload them to the new server.
However, since this process can take hours and hours, the most efficient way would be to create a compressed archive file in cPanel and then check it out at the new host.
Step 2: Export the database
Next, you need to export your existing website database.
Although you can do this manually via phpMyAdmin, a simpler solution is the Migrate DB free WordPress plugin.
In addition to easily exporting your database, WP Migrate DB also handles serialized data and allows you to run search and replace URL paths to make sure everything works fine if you change domain names. .
Install and activate the plugin on the website you want to migrate. Then go to Tools → Migrate DB
Choose the Radio button Export File ( it should be selected by default).
If you change domain names, you can also use the feature Find / Replace to replace your database urls from your new domain.
Then click Export to download a copy of your database:
Step 3: Create a new MySQL database
Next, create a new MySQL database at the host you migrated your website to, along with a new database user and password.
Keep this information handy because you will need it.
Step 4: Import a database
Open phpMyAdmin at the new web host and:
- Find the database you just created in step 3 using the sidebar on the left
- Click on the tab Import
- Select the database file you downloaded with WP Migrate DB in step 2
- Click on Go
Step 5: Edit the wp-config.php file
At this point, your website files and database should be in their new location.
Now you need to tell your website to use the new database you created in step 3.
To do this, edit the file wp-config.php on the migrated website and enter your new database information:
Step 6: Find and replace URLs in Elementor content (if changing the domain)
If you are changing domain names, go to Elementor → Tools. Then click on the tab Replace URL and use the tool to update the URLs of your Elementor content:
Step 7: Regenerate Elementor's CSS
After updating the URLs for your Elementor content, go to Elementor → Tools And click on the button Regenerate Files to force Elementor to regenerate its CSS:
Do you have more questions on how to migrate WordPress?
And that concludes our guide on how to migrate WordPress, including your Elementor content.
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Conclusion
If you have questions on how to safely move websites you created with WordPress and Elementor Pro to new web hosts and / or domain names? Let us know in Comments.
However, you can also consult our resources, if you need more elements to carry out your projects of creation of Internet sites, by consulting our guide on the WordPress blog creation or the one on Divi: the best WordPress theme of all time.
But meanwhile, share this article on your different social networks.
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