Beginner Wordpress Help

[Superficial]

Hi there,

A friend has a Wordpress website for which the original designer and person hosting is no longer in the country / contactable. Logging into the hosting admin panel is not possible as they have never had the un/pw for the hosting. Nor the hosting control panel url.

We do, however, have access to the FTP and all website files which have been downloaded.

we also now have access to the wp control panel

in the long run the website will be replaced but it's fine in its current form for a while.

can we just re-host the files and make do? If so what hosting package would we need?

If that's impossible what is the usual process for backing up and moving a wp site to new host? is there a guide that anyone knows of?

Thanks for reading.

 

[markeh]

Hi,

You'll need database access, do you have that?

 

[Superficial]

Hi,

You'll need database access, do you have that?

Hi there,

Thanks for replying.

There's an update - we do actually have access to the wp control panel but still no access to the hosting control panel.

is there anything I can do from the wp control panel?

 

[touch]

You can install plugins which download a backup of the database. Make sure it gives you a .sql file or a .tar/.gz type archive which you can extract a .sql file from.

You can then upload the database backup to a new host, upload the files you have and edit the wp-config.php file with connection details for the new database.

 

[kwerk]

See if there's an option to export the db from wp. Otherwise you might be able to upload phpmyadmin via ftp and use the db info from the WP config file.

 

[AHarvey]

What kind of website is it? Personal or business? You may be able to forward any emails from the developer to the business email for the website to the hosting company and ask them to sort it out for you?

Who is paying for the hosting/domain? If it's your friend that alone should be enough to have the account moved to your friends name.

 

[Superficial]

You can install plugins which download a backup of the database. Make sure it gives you a .sql file or a .tar/.gz type archive which you can extract a .sql file from.

You can then upload the database backup to a new host, upload the files you have and edit the wp-config.php file with connection details for the new database.

hi there,

Thanks for this - I'm looking at updraft plus free edition but if anyone knows a better backup plugin that would be great.

 

[Superficial]

See if there's an option to export the db from wp. Otherwise you might be able to upload phpmyadmin via ftp and use the db info from the WP config file.

Hi Yes there is:

Tools > Export

Would selecting "all content" and then downloading that file be all I need?

EDIT: this produces an xml file that I would then upload to another wordpress install. Is this as good as a DB backup?

many thanks

 

[kwerk]

Hi Yes there is:

Tools > Export

Would selecting "all content" and then downloading that file be all I need?

EDIT: this produces an xml file that I would then upload to another wordpress install. Is this as good as a DB backup?

many thanks

I've never really used WP so dont know for sure but I assume it saves all the data for that WP instance from the db, then you can simply import it back to the new db after you upload the WP files to the new server. You'll have to configure the db structure on the new server first, I assume there is an option or setup script or something that does that through the WP CP.

So download WP files from server1.
Upload to server2.
Go to CP and initiate new database (or whatever the option is there) to build the tables.
Import the xml file and it should populate the tables.

Obviously don't delete anything off the old one until you're sure the new one is 100%.

 

[touch]

EDIT: this produces an xml file that I would then upload to another wordpress install. Is this as good as a DB backup?

AFAIK, that just takes a copy of all your pages, posts and wordpress settings. It depends on what theme and plugins your using on the site but I wouldnt trust it to copy all of the settings in the DB - particularly if some of the plugins have created their own custom tables.
I dont know for sure though, it would be worth a try as that's probably the easiest way to do it.

 

[Superficial]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for your replies - I took Touch's advice and downloaded a plug in (updraft plus free) that has given me the files in the format .gz

Things are on hold, hopefully, until tomorrow when my friend purchases the appropriate hosting package and I'll upload and see what we see.

RE: the XML - I have it anyway but it never looked substantive enough.

Thanks again

- George

 

[RoyMi6]

Possibly too late now, but if you moved to Vidahost I'm pretty sure they do free website transfers.