Moving a WordPress site from another host

Before you start

• Your NBT Host account must be active and include the domain: either the main domain of your website in Enhance or one you added yourself (the guide “Subdomains and additional domains in Enhance”). Plans for WordPress sites are on the WordPress hosting page.
• You need administrator access to the old WordPress site.
• The site must fit within the limits of your plan.
• The site must run on PHP 8.2, 8.3 or 8.4. If it ran on PHP 7 at your old host, update the theme and plugins first.
• Do not change the nameservers yet. The old site stays online until the very end.
• Email. If you have addresses on your domain at the old host, for example contact@domeniul-tau.ro, create them with us as well before changing the DNS, from the site’s “Emails” tab (the guide “How to create an email account in Enhance”). Messages you have already received do not move on their own, so keep the old hosting until you have saved them. If your email is with Google or Microsoft, contact us before the nameservers are changed so we can keep its settings.
• We use the English menu names from the Enhance interface, exactly as they appear on screen. If Enhance opens in another language, you can switch it to English from the top right: your photo or initials » “My account” » “Language”.

Option 1 — we move it for you, free

The move is free for the sites included in your chosen plan. We do it once, at the start of the contract, if:

• you give us temporary access to your current hosting panel (cPanel, DirectAdmin or Plesk), through a user created only for the move or through delegated access, if your current provider offers it, or a full copy of the files and the database;
• the website fits within the limits of the chosen plan.

The free move does not cover sites built on platforms that do not allow exporting (for example Wix, Squarespace or Shopify), nor repairs, updates or changes to the site. All the conditions are on the Free migration page. Updates after the move can be handled for you by WordPress maintenance.

Steps:

1. Message us on WhatsApp at +40 775 396 021 or write to suport@nbt-host.com: the domain and where it is hosted now.
2. If your old host uses cPanel, the simplest option is a full account backup. In the old cPanel, open Backup (under Files), click Download a Full Account Backup, choose Home Directory as the Backup Destination and click Generate Backup. When it is ready, it appears in the list of backups on the same page. Tell us where to find it, for example through a download link. From a backup like this, we move your email addresses and their messages along with the site. Otherwise, give us temporary access to the old panel, through a user created only for the move or through delegated access.
3. We move the site, check it and tell you when you can change the nameservers (see “Changing the DNS” below).
4. After the move, delete the user created for us or revoke the delegated access.

Option 2 — on your own, with the files and the database

You copy the site’s files and its database by hand. The old site stays online the whole time, and you check the new one before changing the DNS.

1. At the old host, download the site’s files: the folder that contains wp-config.php, usually public_html. The fastest way is to turn it into a .zip archive in the old panel’s file manager and download that. FTP works too.
2. At the old host, export the database. Its name is in wp-config.php, under DB_NAME. In phpMyAdmin, select the database on the left, the Export tab, the Quick method and the SQL format, and download the .sql file.
3. In Enhance, on your website’s page (“Websites”, then the site), open the “Databases” tab and click “Add database”. Enter a name under “Database name”, click “Create new user”, fill in “Username” and “Password” and leave “All database privileges” checked. Click “Add”. Write down the full names of the database and the user, with the prefix Enhance adds in front, and the password.
4. In the list in the “Databases” tab, open the new database. Under “Import SQL file”, click “Upload” and choose the file from step 2. A compressed file (.gz or .zip) of up to 500 MB works too.
5. Open the “Files” tab, go into public_html, upload the archive from step 1 and extract it with “Uncompress” (right-click on it). wp-config.php must end up directly in public_html, not in a subfolder. The detailed steps are in the guide “Uploading a website with File Manager”.
6. Open wp-config.php with “Edit” (right-click) and enter the new database details: DB_NAME and DB_USER with the full names from step 3, DB_PASSWORD with the password, and for DB_HOST enter localhost. Save.
7. Open the “Apps” tab and click “Scan”. Enhance finds the moved WordPress site and adds it to the list, so you can update and secure it from Enhance.
8. Check the new site using the hosts file (next section), then change the DNS.

Checking before you change the DNS (the hosts file)

This lets you see the site on our server from your own computer, before the rest of the world sees it:

1. Open the hosts file:
   • on Windows: search for Notepad in Start, right-click » Run as administrator. Then File » Open and open C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts. Choose “All files” so you can see it in the list;
   • on macOS: open Terminal and type sudo nano /etc/hosts, then your Mac password.
2. Add the following line at the end, with your domain: 185.230.138.193 domeniul-tau.ro www.domeniul-tau.ro
3. Save. In nano: Ctrl+O, Enter, then Ctrl+X. Close and reopen your browser.
4. Open the site and check the pages, the forms and the /wp-admin dashboard. A certificate warning is normal in this test: the real certificate is issued only after the DNS change.
5. Delete the line you added and save again.

Option 3 — on your own, with the All-in-One WP Migration plugin

This option has a short interruption: the new site is installed after the DNS change, so that it has a certificate and an https:// address from the start.

1. In the old WordPress site, go to Plugins » Add New, search for All-in-One WP Migration, then install and activate it.
2. Go to All-in-One WP Migration » Export. Under Export To, choose File and download the .wpress file.
3. Point the nameservers to us (see “Changing the DNS” below) and wait until https://domeniul-tau.ro opens on our server without a certificate warning. If the certificate is delayed, the steps are in the guide “Free SSL certificate”.
4. Install WordPress on the domain from Enhance. The steps are in the guide “Installing WordPress from Enhance”.
5. In the new WordPress site, install the same plugin and go to All-in-One WP Migration » Import. Under Import From, choose File, select the .wpress file and confirm that the new site will be overwritten.
6. Log in to WordPress with the username and password from the old site, because the database has been replaced. Go to Settings » Permalinks and click Save Changes.

The plugin’s import page shows you the maximum file size. On our servers, PHP accepts uploaded files of up to 1000 MB by default, so a lower limit shown there comes from the plugin. For large sites, it is simpler to contact us: we move it for you, free.

Changing the DNS

• Did you buy the domain through us? Contact us and we will change the nameservers for you.
• Is the domain with another company? In the panel of the company you bought it from, set the nameservers to ns1.nbt-host.ro and ns2.nbt-host.ro and remove the others. The steps for each company are in the guide “How to point your domain to NBT Host”.
• Do you have a .de domain? Contact us first: we use a different method for it.
• Propagation can take up to 48 hours. During that time, some visitors still see the old server.
• The free SSL certificate is issued once the domain points to us (the guide “Free SSL certificate”). Then turn on redirecting visitors from http:// to https://, which is not enabled automatically (the guide “Redirecting to HTTPS and www”).
• Do not close the old hosting right away. Keep it for a few days, until you see that everything works and you have saved your email.

After the move

1. Check the important pages, the contact form and, if you run a store, the cart.
2. With option 3, deactivate and delete the migration plugin.
3. Set up automatic updates and access to the WordPress dashboard (the guide “WordPress updates and security in Enhance”).
4. Change the WordPress administrator password if you gave it to anyone, and delete the user created for the move from the old panel.

If something doesn't work

• Only the home page works, and the others show “404 Not Found”. In WordPress, go to Settings » Permalinks and click Save Changes. This rebuilds the .htaccess file.
• “Error establishing a database connection”. The details in wp-config.php do not match the database on the new server. Check the full database name, with its prefix, the user, the password and the host localhost (the guide “Creating a MySQL database and user”).
• The browser shows “Not secure” after the DNS change. The certificate is issued once the DNS points to us, so wait a little longer. If the warning is still there after 24 hours, contact us.
• The site redirects you to the old address or to http://. In WordPress, under Settings » General, check WordPress Address (URL) and Site Address (URL). Both must be https://domeniul-tau.ro, with or without www, as on the old site.
• The import stops or the file is too large. Contact us: we do the move for you, free, under the conditions above.
• You no longer receive email after the DNS change. The addresses must also exist with us, in the site’s “Emails” tab. If your email is with Google or Microsoft, contact us.