Moving a WordPress site to another hosting provider can sometimes not go exactly to plan. Listed below are some common problems that can occur and how to fix them.
Blank page..
Did you actually put the website directly ‘in’ the public_html directory and not in a subdirectory? Most cPanel installations serve the main site straight from the public_html directory and use subdirectories for sub-domains..
Php restrictions or fails to find errors and no site..
This indicates a failure to ‘run’ Php. Check that you don’t have a ‘.user.ini‘ or ‘.php.ini‘ file in the home directory (public_html) of your site, if you do delete them (you may have to FTP into the server to see these files). If this doesn’t fix it and you get another php not found type error, delete the ‘.htaccess‘ file in the home directory.
Note: Do not delete the .htaccess file, only edit it – it contains other configs that could impact on your ability to log onto the site…
Database errors and no site..
This usually indicates a failure to talk to the Database, make sure in the wp-config.php file the database name, user, password and location match the database name, database user (& password), and location. Typically with cPanel the location will be localhost, the database username is often the same as the database name.
The homepage loads fine but no other pages work, comes back not found..
Your ‘.htaccess‘ file is most likely missing, or not correct; it controls how pages are mapped. To regenerate login to WordPress ( /wp-admin/ on the end of the website) as an admin, Navigate to Settings > Permalinks and click on the ‘Save’ button at the bottom – this will force the .htaccess file to be regenerated for you.
Check your DNS serving
Make sure the serving of your DNS record is moved to your new hosting provider, cPanel can act as the Authoritative DNS server for your domain. This will typically involve contacting the domain name registrar with who you originally registered your domain to make the change.
Cannot login?
Everything seems to be working but cannot login? See this page for details of how to reset passwords and accounts.
Not sure about the performance of your website?
Unsure if your website developer actually did a good job?
Not sure if your website is secure?
Aykira has developed an online tool that can help you take control of the situation and get the results you want – the Website Checker .
