I've been putting this one off for a while because it seemed horribly tedious, but it's so awesome to find a plugin that does ALL the hard work for you.
I didn't need to upload my database onto another site to perform any string replacements. I didn't have to download the Wordpress installation package and set it up and import data. I didn't have to even log in as admin to back up MySQL or the FTP files.
I am honestly amazed at how easy this process is due to the plugin. It simply just works.
It's so beautiful.
What you'll need
- An existing Wordpress powered blog (Latest version at time of writing is v3.9.1)
- Duplicator plugin for Wordpress (v0.5.6 at time of writing)
- A new host/domain to host your new blog
- About 15 minutes (not including time to download and upload the backup archive)
In Wordpress
- Log into your admin and then go to Plugins
- Add New
- Search for "Duplicator" and install it
- Once done, activate the plugin
Duplicator
There should now be a new "Duplicator" menu in your admin. Click on it.
- "Create new" to create a new backup
- Default settings are perfect, just click "Next" (unless you really needed to tweak something)
- Let the scan do it's thing.
- Check for any warnings or errors
- (optional) Remove error_log files in ~/ or ~/wp-admin/ if they're too big or not worth keeping
- Click build
- And now wait...
- Download the installer file
- Download the archive (zip) from browser (or ftp in ~/wp-snapshots/). This is the second longest step in the process.
Web
I'm assuming you've done this already, but these are the generic steps. No help from me here.
- Set up an account on your web host
- (if needed) Point your new domain to that server
- Make sure it has PHP and MySQL up and running
- Set up a database for Wordpress
- Set up FTP access so you can upload the backup archive and installer.php
FTP
- Upload "installer.php" and your backup archive to the new server in ~/public_html/
This is the longest step in the whole process :(
Installation
- In your browser of choice, go to http://yoursite.com/installer.php
- Make sure it passes all the tests
- Enter in the new database settings
- Test connection to see if the database settings are OK to use
- Click deploy
- Make sure the new domain settings and file locations are correct
- Make sure the right plugins are activated
- (optional) Keep post GUIDs the same if you're using RSS for anything like automated sharing to Facebook or Twitter to avoid reposts
- Click update
- Check any errors or warnings.
- Now you're all done! Celebrate on your success!
Celebrating, Nicolas Cage style!
Wordpress Admin
A few last steps to tidy things up.
- Log in to /wp-admin
- There should be a notification saying that the Duplicator files are still hanging around. Remove them.
- Disable the plugin
- Try writing a draft post and attacking an image.
- Donate to Cory Lamle, the author of Duplicator. He deserves it.
