In this tutorial I'll show you how to manually migrate your WordPress website from one host to another. There are many duplicator, migration and cloning tools and plugins out there like all in one wp migration or migrate guru etc , but often they timeout, fail or don't work between hosts.
** Update May 2024 - this method still works like a charm today! **
I've used many a cloning tool in my day only to have the migration timeout, take the site down and leave me in a complete panic. It's for this reason that knowing how to do it manually is ABSOLUTELY CRUCIAL. And luckily, it's not rocket science. With a basic understanding of what's going on behind the scenes and the most important files you need to worry about, you can do it often just as fast as it would take a migration tool.
Code For Changing Domain Name from Database (phpmyadmin)
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UPDATE wp_options SET option_value = replace(option_value, 'oldurl.com', 'newurl.com') WHERE option_name = 'home' OR option_name = 'siteurl';
UPDATE wp_posts SET guid = replace(guid, 'oldurl.com', 'newurl.com');
UPDATE wp_posts SET post_content = replace(post_content, 'oldurl.com', 'newurl.com');
UPDATE wp_postmeta SET meta_value = replace(meta_value, 'oldurl.com', 'newurl.com');