How to Move a Drupal Site from One Host to Another
Here are the detailed steps to successfully move a complete Drupal installation from one host to another. You can also check this article: How To Install Drupal with Softaculous to create a new installation.
Migrating Drupal
Do the following on your old Host:
- Back up your whole home directory from your FTP access using an FTP client like Filezilla. Make a folder on your local hard disk and download the complete directory to that local folder.
- Back up your MySQL database on your old host using phpMyAdmin; select your MySQL database, usually something like name_drpl1. Select all fields, click Export, and save the database to your local hard disk. Leave default options enabled. You will receive a file similar to name_drpl1.sql.
This is your MySQL database.
Do the following on your new Host:
- Upload your folder with the complete Drupal installation to your home directory.
To learn how to upload your files, please check out this article How to Upload a File Using the File Manager?. - Once done, go to cPanel.
- Look for the Databases section, then click MySQL Databases.
- On the MySQL Databases page, create a MySQL Database (example: name_drpl1) and MySQL User (example: name_username).
- Create a password for this new MySQL user.
- In assigning privileges, click ALL PRIVILEGES for the user, and assign the user to the new database.
Please refer to the article, How To Create or Delete a MySQL Database or User, for creating a database and database user and assigning privileges. - Import (upload) the database (which you exported from the old host earlier) with phpMyAdmin to the new database.
- If needed, edit the file [Drupal home]/sites/default/settings.php in the section where you enter the database, location, username, and password. You can enter the password, either encrypted or not encrypted, there.
- Chmod your files folder so it is writable using your FTP client (Filezilla); chmod to 755.
- Check your .htaccess and [Drupal home] /sites/default/settings.php and make changes if needed.
You can also check the followings article to learn more about:
- How to Generate & Download a Website Backup
- How to Download a Home Directory Backup
- Download and Restore MySQL Database Backup
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