In this tutorial, we’ll learn how to manually migrate your current WordPress website from your current host to Epik.com. We know website migration is always a bit difficult and may induce some nervousness but we’ll make it as easy as possible with this step by step guide.
Note: This tutorial only covers Website Migration. For Email Migration, please refer to this article: https://www.epik.com/support/knowledgebase/how-to-migrate-your-email-account-to-epik/
Step 0. (Optional) Epik Migration Concierge Services
If you’re a very busy person or simply don’t want to dive in the hassle of the whole process of migration, you may be pleased to know that Epik offers a full WordPress Migration Service for just $99.
Just send us an email to support@epik.com with your request and our migration team will reach out to you as soon as possible to arrange everything. Once we have all the information we need, you will be up and running on Epik’s servers in no time (we often do it under 24 hours for one site only!).
Purchasing an annual Silver Hosting Plan (and up from that category in annual cycle) automatically includes a Migration Concierge Service, so if you’re going for that option, feel free to reach out.
Starting the WordPress Migration – What you’ll need:
To get started you’ll need to have a Web Hosting Plan set up with Epik.com, as well as your current host’s hosting plan running, as you’ll need access to both cPanel’s simultaneously.
Optionally, you may use an FTP client such as Filezilla to access your File Managers and download/upload files, but we’ll keep it simple for this tutorial and work with the cPanel exclusively.
Step 1. Backing Up Your WordPress Files
- On your current host go to cPanel > File Manager.
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- To make sure you’re getting everything, go to Settings and make sure the Show Hidden Files option is checked.
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- Locate the folder that contains your website – normally it’s public_html.
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- Select all the files, and Compress to a .ZIP file.
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- After it’s compressed, select the resulting .ZIP file and Download. Save this in a secure location.
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Step 2. Backing Up Your WordPress Database
- Back on your current host’s cPanel, navigate to phpMyAdmin.
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- Select your Database from the side menu, then Export. Choose Quick on Export Method and SQL Format. Click Go, and download the .SQL database file. Save this in a secure location.
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Now that you’ve backed up everything you need on your current host, let’s head over to Epik’s cPanel.
Step 3. Create Database, User & Password
- On Epik’s cPanel, navigate to MySQL Databases.
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- On Create New Database, choose a new name and click Create Database.
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- Go Back, Create a New User & Password, and click Create User.
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- Go Back and on Add User to Database, choose the newly created credentials, and click Add.
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- Assign All Privileges and click Make Changes.
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Important: Take note of the names of the created Database Name, User and Password as you’ll be needing them down the line.
Step 4. Importing your WordPress Database
- Back on Epik’s cPanel, navigate to phpMyAdmin.
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- Select the newly created Database from the side menu, then Import. Browse for the .SQL database file we’ve downloaded on Step 2, and click Go to start importing.
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Step 5. Importing your WordPress Files
- Back on Epik’s cPanel, navigate to the File Manager.
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- To make sure you’re seeing everything, go to Settings and make sure the Show Hidden Files option is checked.
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- Locate the appropriate folder to re-upload your website (public_html) and click Upload. If you’re doing this for an Addon Domain, choose the created folder (as we’re doing in this case).
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- On the new window, select the .ZIP file you’ve downloaded on Step 1 and start uploading.
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- Back on the File Manager, locate the uploaded .ZIP file, select it, and click Extract. After it’s done, check with the current host File Manager to make sure the structure and folders looks the same and that there’s nothing missing.
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Step 6. Changing the wp-config.php file values to match the database.
- Find the wp-config.php, select it and Right Click > Edit.
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- Locate and edit the following Database Values to match the credentials you’ve created on Step 3. They must be specified within ‘ ‘ as in the image.
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Now the migration is complete! If you’ve already changed the Name Servers to Epik’s hosting, you should be able to login on your website by accessing yourdomain.com/wp-admin.
Troubleshooting – Error 500 Internal Server Error
Sometimes something goes wrong and the site displays a 500 Internal Server Error for example – often due to plugins configuration that were looking for the file path on the origin server (that has a different name on the destination server). To get a better view of what the problem may be, here are a few steps:
- On the cPanel, navigate to Multi PHP Ini Editor.
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- Select the domain you want to debug, and tick the Enable Button to Display Errors.
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- Back in the wp-config.php > Edit > and find the following line(s).
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- Add the following lines of code and save (Attention: these lines are often already present there however set to False – if that is the case, simply edit it – do not add duplicate lines):
define('WP_DEBUG', true); define('WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY', true);![]()
- Access the domain again and a more indicative error should be shown. From there, it will depend on each plugin issue.
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