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Migrating your WordPress Database

Written by Brad Markle
Views: 23,276
Published: Oct 29, 2016
Comments: 14

In this lesson, we will show you how to migrate our WordPress website. In this fictional tutorial we will migrate a your-wordpress-site.com from HostABC to InMotion Hosting. As to provide no downtime during the migration process , we will not update the nameservers  for your-wordpress-site.com, so the hosting will remain pointed to the previous host, in this case HostABC. Once we have performed the migration and tested the site, we will then update the domain's nameservers and point them over to InMotion Hosting. 

Exporting a Backup of your WordPress Database

The way WordPress works is all of your content that you have written for your website is stored in your database. phpMyAdmin is a hosting industry standard for managing MySQL databases, and many hosts provide this tool for their users to use. Since this tool is widely available, we will show you how to use phpMyAdmin to downlaod a backup of your existing database.

wordpress_export
  1. At your previous host, access phpMyAdmin.
  2. Load your WordPress database by clicking the database name in the left hand menu pane.
  3. Click the "export" tab at the top right.
  4. Under "export, highlight all the tables and select "SQL". These are the default settings.
  5. Under "options" make sure that "add DROP TABLE/ VIEW/ PROCEDURE/ FUNCTION" is selected.
  6. Ensure that "Save as File" towards the bottom of the page is selected.
  7. Click Go

This is prompt you to download the backup file.

Creating a NEW MySQL Database

To be able to import the database you just exported from your previous host, you will first need to create a blank database.

mysql_database_wizard
  1. Log into your cPanel account with InMotion Hosting.
  2. Click the "MySQL Database Wizard" link.
  3. In Step 1 of the Wizard, enter a name for your new databse. You can name your database whatever you would like, just be sure to write this down somewhere for future reference.
  4. In Step 2 of the Wizard, enter a database username and password. You can enter anything you would like as the user, please make a note of the username and password for future reference.
  5. In Step 3 of the Wizard, select "ALL PRIVILEGES" and click "Next Step"

Importing the Backup you Created

phpmyadmin_import
  1. Log into your InMotion Hosting cPanel account.
  2. Click on the "PHPMyAdmin" icon.
  3. Select the database you just created.
  4. Click "Import" in the top right.
  5. Click the "Browse" button and select the database backup file on your computer that you created earlier.
  6. Click "Go"

You have now completed migrating your WordPress database, congratulations! The next step in the process is to migrate your WordPress application files.

Please check the next article on Migrating WordPress Files. If you missed our previous article, please see the Migrating your WordPress Site Data tutorial. For more information on this course please visit Migrating your Existing WordPress site to InMotion Hosting.

Please check the next article on Testing your WordPress website after Migration. If you missed our previous article, please see the Migrating WordPress Files tutorial. For more information on this course please visit Migrating your Existing WordPress site to InMotion Hosting.

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You are viewing Section 2: Migrating your WordPress Database
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Section 1: Intro to Migrating your WordPress Site Data
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Section 3: Migrating WordPress Files

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Recent Articles

InMotion Hosting

Migrating your Existing WordPress site to InMotion Hosting
1. Intro to Migrating your WordPress Site Data
2. Migrating your WordPress Database
3. Migrating WordPress Files
4. Configuring WordPress After a Migration
5. Fixing Image Links after a WordPress Migration
6. Testing your WordPress website after Migration
n/a Points
2017-04-28 3:18 pm

Is there any tutorial that is up to date for this (scary!) process?  There are quite a lot of boxes that are ticked or unticked and we don't know if the settings are right for us!
2,858 Points
2017-04-28 3:29 pm
Miranda, I would recommend using the instructions above, and then testing your new site before making any irreversible changes to your current setup.
n/a Points
2017-01-08 4:28 am

Error

 

SQL query:

 

[...]

 

MySQL said: Documentation

#1064 - You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near 'PK' at line 1

The above error comes when I Import database file, which was exported from another host. How can i get rid of this?
Staff
43,761 Points
2017-01-09 2:37 pm
You will need to look at the import file, but it appears there is some mis-confiiguration in it.
n/a Points
2015-04-22 12:29 pm

Hi - I'm getting the same error:

#1044 - Access denied for user '****'@'localhost' to database '***_wordpress_b'

I've imported one site successfully already and did not run into this error. I tried adding a new user permission, logged out and re-logged in, re-downloaded and re-imported the SQL database a few times, but nothing so far has worked. Thoughts on what to try next?
Staff
42,678 Points
2015-04-23 8:36 am
Hello Pamela,

Sorry for the problems with connecting the database. Unfortunately, without specific access to the database or knowledge of where it is, we can't verify, assess and resolve the problem. Can you provide more information on your account? If you want to do this privately, you should submit a support ticket to our live support department and they can look at the issue for you.

Kindest regards,
Arnel C.
n/a Points
2015-04-23 5:11 pm

Thanks, Arnel. I tried again and it worked. Could have been my wonky internet connection that exported only a partial file.
n/a Points
2015-02-06 4:41 pm

Hi there,

I'm having the same issue here and already checked everything 3x. Also deleted and created again the database but I just can't import, keep getting the #1044 error message.

Any idea what else could be?

Thanks!Sam
Staff
11,186 Points
2015-02-06 6:58 pm
Could you provide the full error message?
n/a Points
2014-11-20 1:03 am

Hi, I am traying to migrate my DB but I get the following error: 

Error

SQL query:

-- Database: `*******_DB`

--
DROP DATABASE `*******_DB`;

 

MySQL said: Documentation

#1044 - Access denied for user '*******'@'localhost' to database '*******_DB' Can you please advice how to fix this?

Thank you
Staff
31,499 Points
2014-11-20 12:14 pm
Hello Carlos,

Thank you for contacting us. If access is denied for your user, make sure you have attached the user to the database, and given them privileges to make changes.

If you have any further questions, feel free to post them below.

Thank you,
John-Paul
n/a Points
2014-08-10 7:20 am
I am now scared to move my site to inmotion. There are many placed for me to screw up and I may loose my site. I was hoping to find a host that could help me move the site to inmotion.
Staff
31,499 Points
2014-11-20 11:00 am
Hello John,

Thank you for contacting us. The article above is for people who want to migrate their own WordPress database.

We can help transfer your site, just submit a Website Transfer Request in AMP.

This will create a ticket with Live Support, and they will email you back upon completion of the transfer.

Thank you,
John-Paul

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