How to move a WordPress blog from Dreamhost to Lunarpages

Until this past week, I have used Dreamhost for my website and blog hosting. In fact, I had been with Dreamhost for three years and was set to renew for a fourth year on Saturday. However, I have known since early November that I would not be staying with Dreamhost. In the past, I would have recommended them to anyone. However, over the past year I experienced loads of downtime that cost me money.

So, I did some looking around and saw that Lunarpages Web Hosting had some good reviews and was WAY cheaper than Dreamhost! In fact, they are running a special (the same one I got) where you can get hosting for $4.95 a month if you sign a year contract – and you get a free domain registration!

I had a lot of WordPress blogs to migrate over and I was worried about that. However, it was a fairly easy migration. If you need to move your WordPress blog from Dreamhost to Lunarpages Web Hosting here are the steps that I took:

1. Upgrade your WordPress if you are not using the most up-to-date version

2. Back up your wp-content folder (I just used my FTP program to copy that folder to my desktop)

3. On your Dreamhost Panel, go to Goodies -> ManageMySQL

4. From there, back up your database for your blog using phpMyAdmin (additional info here)

• Log into phpMyAdmin
• Select the appropriate database
• Export
• All of the files should be in the ‘export’ box
• Make sure “SQL” is selected
• In the SQL section, put a tick in ‘Structure,’ ‘Add DROP TABLE,’ ‘Add AUTO INCREMENT,’ and ‘Enclose table & field names with backquotes.’
• In the Data section, tick ‘Data header’ and leave the inside boxes without ticks
• Tick ‘Save As’ and leave the template name as is
• Select ‘zipped’ and click ‘go’

5. Now, go to the LunarPages Cpanel and add the domain

6. Change the nameservers for your domain with your domain registrar

7. Install WordPress on your domain at the new host (Lunarpages) from the cPanel through Fantastico. (remember to enter your original user name and password for your blog!)

8. Once WordPress is installed, go to ‘MySQL Databases‘ in the cPanel and then scroll all the way down to click on phpMyAdmin.

9. Click on the new database that was created when you installed WordPress.

10. Then go to ‘Import’ to import the database zip file making sure to uncheck ‘partial import’ and click ‘go.’

11. Once that is done, use your FTP program to copy over your wp-content folder from your desktop to Lunarpages.

That’s it! It should work after that.

TROUBLESHOOTING

I did have some problems with two of my blogs. Apparently when I had upgraded the WordPress on Dreamhost the database did not get fully updated but it thought it did. As a result, when I tried to log into the blog I got an error when I tried to login to the blog. For instance, when I was in phpMyAdmin my database tables would look like ‘wp-0013nfne3-content’ instead of wp-content. The fix was that some of the tables could just be renamed but others could not. It was a trial and error process.

I also had the problem of none of my categories or blog posts working when you clicked on them. Instead you got a 404 error. Of course when looking at the blog it all looked okay till you clicked on it. I did some searhcing online and discovered that it was a permalink problem. So, I changed the permalink structure and it worked fine. Then I changed it back to the way I wanted it and it still worked.

The final problem I had is that a couple of the blogs were displaying weird characters in some of the blog posts where there were symbols like: &, ‘, “, %, $.

If you are looking for a new web hosting company I recommend Lunarpages Web Hosting. Their support has been stellar and I have experienced zero down time. And hey, the price is right!