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I recently decided to move my site to another server. Since

I recently decided to move my site to another server. Since I didn't want to redirect my domain until I had my site ready, the new host gave me a temporary URL so I could work on it. Now I redirected my domain, but the new host has been "ignoring" my tickets. They gave me some instructions to change my Permalinks, but when I go there, the links are not rewritable. Any suggestions on how to correct this? Thanks.

  • Patrick

    Hi there @lynnort

    I hope you are well today!

    That depends on what you mean by "when I go there". Go where?

    To Settings > Permalinks in your admin? Or your htaccess file? Somewhere in the database perhaps?

    It would help to know exactly what instructions they gave you, as the process of updating permalinks may be very specific to how they have set things up for you.

    In the meantime, there's some helpful information in the codex about moving & updating WordPress here:
    http://codex.wordpress.org/Moving_WordPress#When_Your_Domain_Name_or_URLs_Change

  • lynnort

    To Settings > Permalinks in your admin

    This is what they told me to do:
    "In order to update the links, first login to wordpress dashboard, click on settings, go to the general tab, update the urls in the Wordpress Url and Site Url. Scroll to the bottom and click on save changes. This will log you out, log back in, click on settings again, click on permalinks, and then click on save changes. This will update all the links and your site should work correctly on the new url."

    But when I click on the General tab I only have these options: Site Title, Tagline, E-mail address, Timezone, Date Format, Time Format, Week starts on...

    The second time they told me this:
    "Then you just need to save your new URL settings by saving your permalinks. To do this, you will go to your Settings and click Permalinks. You shouldn’t have to make any changes, simply click the Save Changes button. This will make sure that all of the links on your site are now using your domain instead of the previous URL."

    My answer was: When I go to permalink settings there's nothing I can change there. I see the URLs, but they're not something I could rewrite. I saved, but everything remained the same.

  • PC

    Hey there,

    Thanks for posting back.

    The first thing I will suggest you to do is take a backup of the files you have on your old server.

    Login to php my admin and export the database so that we have the database backup as well.

    No offence to any specific hosting but now, as you have decided to move to a host which is ignoring your tickets, do you think you should ideally continue with them ?

    Just to make sure I understand the issue, did you move the site to the new domain and using a temporary URL got it working and then when you redirect the domain it does not work ?

    Perhaps you did not follow the right process. Here is a good guide : http://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-move-wordpress-to-a-new-host-or-server-with-no-downtime/

    It will help you move your site without a downtime. But as its a multi site, you need to take care of a few things and do it like this :

    1: Do not remove the domain from the old hosting yet and keep it pointed at their nameservers so that your site keeps working fine

    2: Add your domain to the new hosting and then use hosts file on your computer to access that domain. So for example your old site is xyz.com and the IP is 1.2.3.4 it will still keep working but if your new hosting IP is 3.4.5.6 then if you are using hosts file then if you access xyz.com you will be able to access the site on the new server (but your users will still use the old site) and then you can test, break, do anything on the new host and once ready, just change the nameservers on your domain and the propagation will begin.

    3: Make sure your new host supports Wildcard DNS as that is required for Multisite.

    I hope that helps. Please feel free to ask if you have more questions on the same.

    Cheers, PC

  • lynnort

    Thank you so much for your reply. I'm getting desperate... Thanks for your recommendations.
    1. As you suggested, I made a backup of the files I want to move.
    2. I exported the databases.
    3. As for the host, I think I went from bad to worse when I made this this change. I just started with them and Oh boy, have I regretted it! I'm counting the days until this year ends, and I'll try to find one with a better customer support..
    4. No, I did not move my old site. I installed a new one at the new host, and asked for a temporary URL so I could work on it until it was ready, and then redirected my domain. Now they tell me that they can't revert the temporary URL because my new installation is a wp multisite.
    5. Now I don't know what to do. I even read the instructions to try to revert the multisite back to a single site, but since I'm not a pro, they look a bit difficult for me, and I don't want to make things worse.
    6. I also made a new wp installation in another directory, to make it the main site as a single site and cloned the other site, but the home page looks fine, the rest doesn't. I must have done something wrong with the database.
    I feel like I'm playing pin the tail on the donkey blindfolded.

  • Ash

    Hi @lynnort

    After reading this long thread, some things are still confused to me, I apologize. Let me explain something for you.

    When you create a wordpress site, at the very first stage WP takes the current URL and save it in the databse. Next time it uses the same url. For example, you have used http://tempsite.com as main url when you installed wordpress. And later another url http://mainsite.com is pointed to same place. Now it you enter http://mainsite.com in browser, it will take you to http://tempsite.com url. There is an easy way to fix this. Just adding these two lines in wp-config.php:

    define('WP_HOME','http://mainsite.com');
define('WP_SITEURL','http://mainsite.com');

    But note that, this process is only for single WP site.

    So, what about multisite? There is no easy process to change the permalink of a multisite. I am showing you the easiest process among the complex ones.

    1. First of all, of course you need to create a backup of your database and all files.
    2. Then export the current database. The database should be exported as .sql file.
    3. Open the exported file in a good IDE, like dreamweaver, netbeans, notepadd++, komodo edit etc.
    4. Use find and replace feature.
    5. Find http://tempdomain.com and replace http://mainsite.com and click on replace all.
    6. Save again as a sql file.
    7. Remove all tables from that database (you have a backup, right?) and import the edited database in there.
    8. In last step, you need to edit wp-config.php file:
    Change
    define('DOMAIN_CURRENT_SITE', 'http://tempdomain.com');
    to
    define('DOMAIN_CURRENT_SITE', 'http://mainsite.com');

    And now you should be able to see that site in new domain.

    Hope it helps :slight_smile: Please feel free to ask more question if you have.

    Cheers
    Ash

  • lynnort

    @Ashok
    Hi. Today was the first day I could sit quietly in front of my PC to follow your instructions. I followed them as carefully as I could, but now the site doesn't work. The only thing I found different was on the last step, when I changed the wp-config file. Under the line
    "define('DOMAIN_CURRENT_SITE', 'http://mainsite.com');"
    I also have this:
    define('PATH_CURRENT_SITE', '/~acrpnet/');
    That was like the temporary folder they ceated for me (I think). What should I write there?

    • Ash

      In most cases internal server error produced for wrong htaccess. Would you please check your htaccess?

      As you have full backup of your old site, would you please send me the full site and with db? And then also send me the cpanel access of your current host where you want this site to be hosted. If in your current hosting, you don't need anything, please delete everything (of course you should keep a backup of your old site) or make a zip and delete the rest.

      I will try to host your old site to the new site.

      If you are open, please send all requested details at contact@wpmudev.org with subject line "Attn-Ash" and a link back of this thread.

      Cheers
      Ash

  • lynnort

    Hi, @Ashok,
    I'm very, very grateful for your help, and for your wonderful offer to try to host my site for me, but I decided that I'm fed up with bluehost. The last time I posted here I also sent them another message. Their help was to add to my shopping cart a 45 minute coaching session for $29.99. So this seems to be the reason they have been so unhelpful. They wanted more money! Even though I'm not a WP expert, I have sites in Arvixe and Site5, and they've never given me such a hard time!

    So I decided to rebuild my site somewhere else, and I'm starting anew with another host. This doesn't mean I won't be asking for help anytime soon, but I really, really appreciate everything you've done for me.

  • Patrick

    Hey there @lynnort

    I hope you are well today!

    Yep, I've been thinking about getting some test sites set up with Site5 too. They look pretty good to me... and have a free migration service to boot. :slight_smile:

    I'm going to mark this topic resolved to get it out of our active ticket system. But if you need more help on this, just check the "Mark as not resolved box" below to re-open it when you post again.

    Also, props to @Ashok for his awesomeness here!

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