Moving Your Blog Content to Your GoDaddy.com Hosting Directory
(For those of you just tuning in, this is the second part of a two-part series that explains how to move an existing WordPress blog to a GoDaddy.com hosting account.)
A WordPress blog consists of multiple parts:
- A mySQL database that contains the content of the blog entries, comments, and other important data.
- Content files including themes and their template files, plugins, images, etc.
This is important because in order to rebuild your blog on another server, you must have all the parts.
WordPress.com vs. WordPress Server Installation
If you have a WordPress.com blog, your access to blog files is somewhat restricted. It’s not that you can’t access them — it’s just that account access is simplified, thus making it more difficult to extract data.
For example, a WordPress server installation can be backed up, thus resulting in a mySQL-compatible backup file that can be imported into a new mySQL database. A WordPress.com blog can only be exported in XML format, requiring an appropriate importer on the new WordPress installation to import the files.
A WordPress server installation commonly stores all non-database content in the wp-content folder, including themes, plugins, and uploads. You can use FTP client software to access and download this content. A WordPress.com blog stores all non-database content in the bowels of the WordPress.com server. It’s still accessible, but you can’t just use FTP to download it all into one place. In addition, the themes are part of the WordPress.com feature set, so they can’t be extracted from that server. Instead, you’ll have to start from scratch by installing the theme you want in your new blog installation and activating it for your new blog.
As a result of these differences — and the fact that most folks who might be interested in moving their blog to GoDaddy.com are already using a WordPress server installation, this article will cover a server installation move. If you have a WordPress.com blog and want to move it to GoDaddy.com, use the Comments link for this post to let me know. If enough people are interested, I’ll write up the instructions for the export and import.
Backing up the Database
Start by backing up your WordPress database.
If you already do a complete backup regularly and haven’t made a change to your blog since the last backup, you’re already done with this step. Move on.
But if you’re living life in the fast lane and don’t back up regularly (or at all), follow the instructions my article titled “Backing Up a WordPress Blog Database”
Backing Up the Content Files
Next, back up your blog installation. That’s all the files and folders in the root directory for your WordPress blog.
How you do this depends on how you can access the server.
In my case, the server is accessible by a local network, so I just used the network to open the copy a blog’s folder on the network drive to my local hard drive.
If your blog’s files are on a remote server, you’ll have to use FTP software like Fetch or CuteFTP to access the server and “get” the files. We explain how to use FTP software in Appendix B of our WordPress book.
Creating a mySQL Database at GoDaddy.com
Next, you’ll need to create a database on GoDaddy.com to hold your blog entries and other database content.
- Log Into your GoDaddy.com account.
Choose My Hosting Account from the Hosting & Servers menu on the green navigation bar.
In the Hosting Account list, click the Open link beside the account you want to use for your blog.- In the Hosting Manager window, click the MySQL icon (or link) under Databases.
- Click the Create New Database button in the MySQL window.
In the MySQL Database Connection Information boxes, enter a user name and a password (twice). The user name will also be the name of your database. Click Continue.- The user name will appear in the next window. Click Create Database to confirm it.
- The new database appears in the list of databases with the words Pending Setup beside it. Setup usually takes 5 to 20 minutes.
Get the Server Host Name for the Database
Unlike most WordPress server installations, the host name for a Godaddy.com-hosted WordPress blog is not localhost. So what is it?
The host name can be different for every database. To find out what it is for your database, follow these steps:
- Log Into your GoDaddy.com account.
- Choose My Hosting Account from the Hosting & Servers menu on the green navigation bar.
- In the Hosting Account list, click the Open link beside the account you want to use for your blog.
- In the Hosting Manager window, click the MySQL icon (or link) under Databases.
- Click the link for the user name of the database you want to use.
Look at the Host Name field in the My SQL Database Information area of the Edit a MySQL Database window. Write it down — you’ll need it later.
Import the Data into the Database
Now it’s time to import the data from the backup file into the new database you just created. It isn’t hard — once you know where the right buttons are hiding.
- Log Into your GoDaddy.com account.
- Choose My Hosting Account from the Hosting & Servers menu on the green navigation bar.
- In the Hosting Account list, click the Open link beside the account you want to use for your blog.
- In the Hosting Manager window, click the MySQL icon (or link) under Databases.
- Click the Open Manager button for the database you want to import into.
- Enter the database’s user name and password in the login window and click Log In.
Click the Query Window button on the left side of the phpMyAdmin window that appears.
Click the Import Files tab of the query window that appears. Then click the Browse button and use the dialog that appears to locate, select, and open the backup file you created earlier. Its path should appear in the Location box, as shown here. Click Go.
phpMyAdmin imports the data. It displays the data tables in the main window, hiding the Import Files query window from view. Close the phpMyAdmin and query windows.
Copying Your Other Data to Your New Blog Site
You’ll need to use FTP software to copy your WordPress blog folder to the proper directory on your GoDaddy hosted account. Where you copy it depends on how you configured GoDaddy, as discussed in the previous article of this series:
- If you’re just using the domain name the GoDaddy.com account is set up under (either your free hosting account or a paid for account), put the contents of your WordPress folder (not the folder itself) into the root directory of your hosting account.
- If you’re using a subdomain or other domain name for your blog, put the contents of your WordPress folder (not the folder itself) into the folder you specified when setting up the subdomain or other domain. You may have to use your FTP software to create the necessary folder first.
We explain how to use FTP software in Appendix B of our WordPress book, so I won’t repeat that information here.
Modifying the config.php File
The config.php file, which resides in the root directory of a WordPress installation, must include the correct database name, password, and host. Even if the database name and password are the same as they were on your old installation, the Host probably won’t be.
- Use your favorite text editor (not word processor!) to open the config.php file for your blog — preferably the one you’ve already copied to the server. (You can open a local copy, but you must use FTP to put it on the server when you’re done making and saving changes.)
Modify the values in single quotes in each of the define statements in the file. (That’s lines 3 – 6.) This information must match your database setup exactly. The database name and user name will be the same.- Save the file to the server, overwriting any existing file.
Are You Done?
At this point, you’ve done most, if not all, of the work required to make the move. There are just a few things to keep in mind:
- Test your site by entering its URL in a browser window. If it comes up without error messages, take the rest of the day off — you’re done.
- If you’re using a DNS server other than GoDaddy’s or you have modified GoDaddy’s DNS server, you’ll have to change the A record to point to the IP address of your site’s Web server. You do this with GoDaddy’s Total DNS Control feature. You can find the server’s IP address by clicking the account name in the Hosting Account list. Your site will not be reachable until you do this — in fact, you might not even be able to access it via FTP to upload the files until this is done.
- If links to pages or images or other files in your blog entries had fully qualified URLs (for example,
http://www.marialanger.com/wp-content/images/picture.jpg) rather than relative URLs (such as/wp-content/images/picture.jpgfor content within the blog and you now have a new domain name, you’ll have to manually change all the URLs so they point to the correct domain name. Not fun, I know. You might be able to do a global change using phpMyAdmin, but please don’t ask me how. I don’t know. - If you want to start with a fresh installation of WordPress, you can install it into the proper directory on your GoDaddy hosting account. (We explain how to install WordPress in our WordPress book.) Then just copy the
wp-contentfolder from your existing site to the new site. - If your old site has a different domain name, it will continue to operate normally until you delete it. I recommending creating an entry in
.htaccessto point to the new location. If both versions of your site (original and new) have the same domain name, wait a day or two to delete the old one to give the domain name system a chance to propagate the new IP address of your site. Any new comments on the original site will not be carried forward to the new site.
Previous Article in this Series
I am trying to restore from a mysql dump to a new database and am getting the following error: #1065 – Query was empty
The dump is from a sql database from godaddy.com that I can’t get to.
They created it when I used the “value added” application install of wordpress. I have to depend onn them to make the “dump” for me.
Thanks for your help.
Awesome! Worked like a charm. Thanks for the screen shots. Real helpful.
Jack
Are these all the things oyu need to move the wordpress on to godaddy’s servers?
Fritz: Not having experience with what you’re going through, I can’t advise you. Your best bet is to ask GoDaddy support. It may take more than one call though; I’ve found that some support people are more knowledgeable than others. Good luck.
Jack: Glad it worked for you!
Fan: I believe so.
I have a wordpress.com blog and I would like to move it to godaddy.com.
one for me. haha.
I am lost… I am trying to get my wordpress over to GoDaddy… I have spoken with 3 people at GoDaddy and they are clueless as to how to get my blog to transfer over… I am even having problems getting my old blogger site over too… any other advice you can give?? my new site is kellystern.net I am slowly getting it together, so I have not really made any posts there yet… just setting up sidebar and links…
Not knowing what steps you’ve already taken and what problems you are having, I can’t provide any advice. Why not go through the steps on these two articles and let me know where the problem lies?
The only other thing I can suggest is to keep calling GoDaddy support. Eventually, you may get someone who’s interested in helping you with this. But their standard line is that they don’t support third party applications. GoDaddy will give you decent service for a great price — but you’re on your own to get things set up the way you need them to. It’s not the best choice if you need a lot of setup support.
[...] There Goes My Easy Way Could’nt find any plugins option on my Wordpress dashboard in order to create a back-up of my Wordpress database: step 1 in Maria Langer’s guide to transferring my Wordpress hosted blog to Godaddy:Â Â Was able to create an XML file through the export option, but that was about it. [...]
Just found your blog post … I’ve just set up a blog running WordPress on a GoDaddy virtual server. But I’m having problems with caching — seems that GoDaddy runs NetCache, a caching proxy, and that it seems to be ignoring WordPress’s no-cache headers on comments pages. It’s weird, but it only happens in Firefox.
What happens is this: you post a comment, browser does a POST to the server with no-cache headers, then as is normal WordPress does a redirect back to the comments page. But your comment doesn’t show up (in Firefox), because NetCache is serving up an old page … despite the comments page having no-cache headers. But as soon as you press F5/refresh it comes up (because then Fx sends a max-age: 0 header with the request).
Any ideas, or anyone else have similar experience?
Is there a way to automatic backup on godaddy account. Currently, godaddy do not support cron job to run a script automatically…
Do you have any idea???
If you’re talking about backing up your WordPress database file, the WordPress Database Backup Plugin will work with a GoDaddy hosting account. I use it on my 2.0x WordPress blogs with the Cron plugin for WordPress and on my 2.1 WordPress blogs with the built-in backup scheduling feature.
If you’re talking about backing up other content, that’s something you need to explore with the GoDaddy help and support features. I really don’t know. I use a Fetch shortcut scheduled with iCal to get the job done here on my Mac.
Hello. I would like to know how to move a wordpress.com blog over to godaddy.
thanks!
Phil, I’ll try to write that up sometime later this month. Right now I’m working against the clock to meet a deadline on a Leopard book. Bear with me and thanks for your interest.
Thanks Maria. In fact I got it working. I would say the most important thing is to read everything twice and then go step by step.
I had to create the database and the sql through the control panel, then change the info in the config file. The one thing I was missing was the “localhost” which had to be changed, though in the tutorials, they say that 99% of the time it stays the same. That threw me off.
Everything is ship shape now. thanks!
In the paragraph,
“If links to pages or images or other files in your blog entries had fully qualified URLs (for example, http://www.marialanger.com/wp-content/images/picture.jpg) rather than relative URLs (such as /wp-content/images/picture.jpg for content within the blog and you now have a new domain name, you’ll have to manually change all the URLs so they point to the correct domain name. Not fun, I know. You might be able to do a global change using phpMyAdmin, but please don’t ask me how. I don’t know.”
Do you know how I can change this manually?
Lee, manually? Yes. You’d have to edit each post to change the domain name. This would be a long and tedious process if you had a lot of posts with links to old URLs.
If you were in that position, you might want to research the MySQL REPLACE command, and use that with MySQL Admin or some other database editing tool. BE SURE TO BACK UP YOUR WORDPRESS DATABASE BEFORE MODIFYING IT.
Good luck.
Maria
I want to move my wordpress.com blog to godaddy.com. Please I will appreciate a new tutorial like this for that process.
I too would very much appreciate a tutorial on how to move my wordpress.com blog to godaddy. Thank you so much.
I too would like to know how to use the import and export function. Whenver I try it in godaddy it just hangs.
Hello, Maria
I’ve downloaded the WP 2.6.1 folder onto my computer, but I don’t know which file I need to import to Godaddy in order to complete the 9th step.
Thanks.
Abby, you need to import the backup file you created for your WordPress database early on in the process. It’s one of the first things you should have done.
Also, these instructions are now nearly 2 years old; they might not work exactly as written these days.
Good luck!
When trying to import my backed up database sql file, it gives me the following error:
import.php: Missing parameter: import_type (FAQ 2.8)
import.php: Missing parameter: format (FAQ 2.8)
Any ideas what I can do?
I followed your instructions, but am getting this message now when I go to the site: Forbidden: you don’t have permission to access/on this server. I think it is still pointing to the old residence of the wordpress site. I did change the domain settings in my site, then downloaded all the files, before moving to the new address. Any ideas? Could use some help. Thanks so much!
Teri: This could be a permissions problem. If you put WordPress in a subfolder within your site’s main directory folder, did you set permissions properly.
If you can’t get it to work, you have two options:
1) Try an installation using GoDaddy’s WordPress install (which was not available when I wrote this article) or (2) Contact GoDaddy for help. I would try both of these, in order, after checking permissions.
Good luck!
The link to backing up your wp blog is broken — thanks for the great info
Thanks for letting me know about the bad link. I’ve fixed it, so it should work fine. The correct link is: http://www.mariasguides.com/2006/09/15/backing-up-a-wordpress-blog-database/
The plugin has been updated, it can now do scheduled backups on its own. It also comes from a new source:
http://www.ilfilosofo.com/blog/wp-db-backup/
Thank you so much for this guide. I was down in the drains after trying to migrate my blog to GoDaddy from another host. On another note, what was GoDaddy thinking by not implementing CPanel for their hosting service? The current system is pathetic!
Hi Maria,
Have you ever done an upgrade of wordpress on godaddy? If so, you able to follow the upgrading instructions on wordpress web site?
Thanks
Cindy
I need help getting this done.
Anyone who can complete the transfer of my wordpress blog to my godaddy accoutn please email me at drsadov@gmail.com
Thanks!
To everyone needing help with this:
I’m really sorry, but I can’t provide individual assistance.
Also, please note that I don’t do the GoDaddy installation of WordPress. I do my own, using an FTP client on my GoDaddy server space. I then upgrade WordPress from within WordPress. I am completely unfamiliar with GoDaddy’s WordPress installation, so I can’t answer questions about it.
Finally, please keep in mind that this article is nearly THREE YEARS OLD. Things change. Chances are, nothing looks like this anymore.
I briefly covered installing WordPress on a GoDaddy server in my Lynda.com WordPress material. If you have a Lynda.com subscription, I highly recommend that you check it out.
I MAY update this article for a current GoDaddy/WordPress setup. But I cannot guarantee this. It would likely conflict with the material I prepared for Lynda.com.
Sorry I can’t currently offer any more assistance than what you’ll find here.
I have quite a few domain as well as hosting accounts with Godaddy, and I have never had a bad experience. It might as well depend on how technically sound you are, but if you know how to play around with websites, you should be fine. My reason for chosing Linux hosting against Windows is to be able to run “cron jobs” as well as the “.htaccess” url rewriting. Installing Wordpress (and for that matter many other useful tools) is pretty easy with Godaddy hosting connection, or you can take it by yourself through FTP if you know how to. On the downside, I have experienced Godaddy’s database server down (and slow) at times.
Your post is explanatory and very helpful. Thanks for putting it all together.
bipul: Thanks very much. Unfortunately, it’s quite outdated now. I really need to go through the process again and rewrite it. One of these days….
Just wondering if you ever wrote a post on this blog or elsewhere about moving a blog from WordPress.com to GoDaddy. I’m well into the process, but stuck near the end.
Do you have an article about importing XML generated from a wordpress.com blog? There seems to be an issue about the image links — the images are still linked with the old wordpress.com site, not my new wordpress site on GoDaddy.
Found a support post in WordPress.org forum that I’m hoping will help me solve the puzzle of importing my xml file (from Wordpress.com) self-hosted account onto GoDaddy. I’ve had no problem installing wordpress software on GoDaddy. The issue’s been attempting to import the xml file from wordpress.com. The import runs for a couple of minutes or so, then stops far short of completion, producing an error message (GoDaddy tells me “it’s a WordPress issue”).
Just in case anyone reading this is experiencing the same problem, I thought I’d share this support post found on Wordpress.org: http://wordpress.org/support/topic/327025?replies=3
I’m about to try the approaches (well, at least the first one) suggested by user “maisquared.” Will let you know here if it works…
Mark: I don’t have a solution for your problem. I haven’t moved a WordPress.com site to GoDaddy in quite a while, so I’m not up to date on how it works. And as I told another reader here, I write new content for this site based on the paid-for projects I’m working on. (Paying the bills is a higher priority than providing technical support for single-reader issues — sorry!) I don’t have any WordPress projects in the pipeline, so I’m not likely to write anything new about WordPress here (beyond quick tips, etc.).
One thing to consider is how large your WordPress.com database file is. How many posts? Big posts? There might be a memory issue if it’s big.
Sorry I can’t be of any more help. Perhaps someone else here can point you in the right direction. Otherwise, keep banging away at the WordPress.org support forums. You’re likely to find someone there with the same issue.
Thanks, Maria. I certainly understand. Thanks for the tip on a possible memory issue. Best of luck with your blog and business ventures!
Meantime, I canceled hosting on GoDaddy. I do not recommend GoDaddy for anyone thinking of moving their wordpress.com blog to self-hosting.
Mark: I agree that GoDaddy’s “its a WordPress problem” can be frustrating. Best of luck finding a good host. I recommend trying the ones listed here: http://wordpress.org/hosting/ These are the hosts Automattic recommends; they’ll likely be more helpful.