Moving a WordPress Blog to a New Server
This tutorial is written for those of you who have already upgraded your installation of WordPress to Version 2.7. You have decided to move your hosted domain to a new server. Before you even think of starting this process, make sure you have plenty of time AND you are not already harassed! This tutorials assumes the domain name will remain the same.
Preparation
Step 1: Sign in to your old blog as the Site Administrator.
From the Tools Panel on the Dashboard > Choose Export
The Export function will export the contents of one blog (posts,
comments, pages, sub-pages, categories) in the form of an xml file to your desktop
On the Restrict Authors choose All Authors if you have additional authors listed
Click thumbnail to view larger image
Save the file to your desktop or somewhere you will remember where it is.
Step 2: If you want to be able to import your current Blogroll i.e. Links you will need to download the wp-links-opml.php file. Download http://mydomain.com/wp-links-opml.php (change the url to your domain) NOTE: The OPML format doesn’t support categories even though they’ll be there when you do the export. Assign the major category for them when you go to import them as you’re going to have to reassign them afterwards anyway.
Open that exported blogroll (links) xml file in a plain text editor like NotePad and save as a .txt file. The blogroll (links) xml file MUST be saved as a plain text file.
Step 3: Next download the entire directory that contains your current wordpress domain to your computer just to be safe.
Importing to New Server
Step 1: Install WordPress to your new server space. I
used SimpleScripts because it was available and it installed the latest stable version
2.7. Before you can import the file that contains your posts and comments to your
new WordPress setup you will need to change the nameservers to point to your new
host server.
NOTE: There is supposed to be a work-around for this by editing
the hosts file on your computer but I could not get it to work with Vista. You will
also need to allow time for the nameservers to propagate down the line before you
can access your new wp-admin panel.
Step 2: Copy the contents of the OLD wp-contents folder to your
new blog server. Copy your images folder if you have one to your new blog directory.
Copy the analyticstracking.php if you are using Google Analytics.
Step 3: Import the xml file that you exported earlier. There is an import and export function that is part of your dashboard > Dashboard > Tools > Import -> WordPress.
You will receive the message: Howdy! Upload your WordPress eXtended RSS (WXR) file and we’ll import the posts, comments, custom fields, and categories into this blog.
Choose a WordPress WXR file to upload, then click Upload file and import. Choose a file from your computer: (Maximum size: 2mb) Upload File and import. If the file size is larger than 2mb, you will need to break it into smaller chunks.
Import your Blogroll i.e. Links - Be sure you are using a plain text editor and then import the .txt file you saved into your new blog at Dashboard -> Blogroll -> Import Links.
Step 4: The Default Theme is the one that will greet you. Activate your old theme. I had customized the Misty Look theme so activated it. I then had to change the header image and the widgets I had used previously.
Step 5: Reactivate and configure your plugins. You might want to make note of your API code as you will need it to set up some of your plugins including Akismet.
Step 6: Check and make sure everything works as you expect it to including any plugins such as your contact form and site map.