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WPBeginner» Blog» Tutorials» How to Move WordPress From Local Server to Live Site (2 Methods)

How to Move WordPress From Local Server to Live Site (2 Methods)

Last updated on February 14th, 2019 by Editorial Staff
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How to Move WordPress From Local Server to Live Site (2 Methods)

One way to speed up your website development is to build your website locally on your own computer using a software like WAMP (for Windows) or MAMP (for Mac).

Once you’re finished perfecting your website, the next step is to move it from your computer to a live site and share your creation with the world. In this article, we will show you how to easily move WordPress from local server to a live site.

Move WordPress From Local Server to Live Site

We will cover two different methods to move WordPress from local server to your live website (step by step).

The first method uses a WordPress migration plugin and is recommended for beginners. In the second method, we will show you how to manually move WordPress from local server to a live site.

You can choose the method that best suits you:

  • Method 1. Move WordPress from local server to live site using a plugin
  • Method 2. Manually move WordPress from local server to live site

Before You Begin

In order for you to migrate WordPress from localhost to live server, you need to have a few things in place.

First, we’re assuming that you have a WordPress site running on local server (also called localhost) on your computer, and you have full access to it.

Next, you’ll need to have a domain name and web hosting. We have a list of the best WordPress hosting companies that you can choose from.

To speed it up, you can use Bluehost. They’re an official WordPress recommended hosting provider, and they are offering our users an exclusive 60% off discount + a free domain.

If you need help setting up your website, follow our step by step guide on how to make a website.

Finally, you will need to have a FTP program and know how to use FTP, so you can upload your content to the live site.

Ready? Let’s begin migrating your WordPress site.

Method 1. Transfer WordPress from Local Server to Live Site Using a Migration Plugin

This method is easier and recommended for beginners. We’ll be using a WordPress migration plugin to move WordPress from localhost to a live site.

Step 1. Install and Setup Duplicator Plugin

First, thing you need to do is install and activate the Duplicator plugin on your local site. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you need to go to Duplicator » Packages page and click on the ‘Create New’ button.

Creating a new Duplicator package

After that, click on the next button to continue.

Duplicator will now run some tests to see if everything is in order. If all items are marked ‘Good’ then click on the ‘Build’ button.

Build package

This process may take a few minutes depending on the size of your website. You need to leave this tab open until the process is complete.

Once finished, you’ll see download options for Installer and the Archive package. You need to click on the ‘One click download’ link to download both files to your computer.

Download package

So what are these files?

Well, the archive file is a copy of your complete WordPress website. It includes all WordPress core files as well as your images, uploads, themes, plugins, and a backup of your WordPress database.

The installer file is a script that will automate the migration by unpacking the archive file.

Step 2. Create a Database for Your Live Site

Before you can run the installer or upload the WordPress website from localhost to your hosting server, you will need to create a MySQL database for your live website.

If you have already created a MySQL database, then you can skip this step.

To create a database you need to visit your hosting account’s cPanel dashboard. Scroll down to the Databases section and then click on the MySQL Databases icon.

Database icon in cPanel

On the next screen, you’ll see a field to create a new database. Simply provide a name for your database and click on the ‘Create Database’ button.

Create new database

cPanel will now create a new database for you. After that, you need to scroll down to the MySQL Users section.

Next, provide a username and password for your new user and click on the ‘Create a user’ button.

Add a MySQL user

The new user you just created, still does not have permission to work on the database. Let’s change that.

Scroll down to the ‘Add User to Database’ section. Simply select the database user you created from the dropdown menu next to the ‘User’ field, then select the database, and click on the add button.

Save user to the database

Your database is now ready to be used with your WordPress site. Make sure to note down the database name, username, and password. You’ll need this information in the next step.

Step 3. Upload Files from Local Server to Live Site

Now you need to upload the archive and installer files from your local site to your hosting account.

First, connect to your live site using an FTP client. Once connected, make sure that the root directory of your website is completely empty.

Normally, root directory is the /home/public_html/ folder.

Some WordPress hosting companies automatically install WordPress when you sign up. If you have WordPress files there, then you need to delete them.

After that, you can upload the archive and installer files from Duplicator to your empty root directory.

Migration files in the root directory

Step 4. Runing The Migration Script

After you have uploaded the migration files, you need to visit the following URL in your browser:

http://example.com/installer.php

Don’t forget to replace example.com with your own domain name.

This will launch the Duplicator migration wizard.

Duplicator intialized

The installer will automatically scan for the archive file and run a validation test. You need to check the terms & conditions checkbox and continue by clicking on the Next button.

On the next screen, it will ask you to enter your WordPress database information.

Your host will likely be localhost. After that, you will enter the details of the database you created in the earlier step.

Connect your database

Click on the next button to continue.

Duplicator will now import your WordPress database backup from the archive into your new database.

Next, it will ask you to update site URL or Path. You shouldn’t have to change anything since it automatically detects the URL of your live website, and its path.

Update site URL

Click on the next button to continue.

Duplicator will now finish the migration and will show you a success screen. You can now click on the ‘Admin Login’ button to enter the WordPress admin area of your live site.

Successfully moved

Once you login to your live site, Duplicator will automatically clean up the installation files.

That’s all, you have successfully moved WordPress from local server to your live site.

Method 2. Manually Transfer WordPress from Local Server to Live Site

In this method, we will show you how to manually move WordPress from local server to your live site. It will come in handy if the first method doesn’t work or you prefer to do it manually.

Step 1: Export Local WordPress Database

The first thing you need to do is export your local WordPress database. We’ll be using phpMyAdmin to do that. If you are unfamiliar with it, then you might want to take a look at our guide to WordPress database management using phpMyAdmin.

Simply go to http://localhost/phpmyadmin/ and click on your WordPress database. Next, click on the Export button from the top menu bar.

Export from localhost

In the Export Method option, you can choose “Quick” or “Custom”. Custom will provide you with more options to export your database.

We recommend choosing Quick, and then click the Go button to download your database.

Export WordPress database using phpMyAdmin

Step 2: Upload WordPress Files to Live Site

Now we’ll need to move all your website files to the live site.

To get started, go ahead and open your FTP client and connect to your web hosting account.

Once you’re connected to your live site, make sure you upload the files in the right directory. For example, if you want the site to be hosted on yoursite.com, then you would want to upload all the files in your public_html directory.

Now select your local WordPress files and upload them to your live server.

Uploading WordPress from localhost to live site

Step 3: Create MySQL Database on Live Site

While your FTP client is uploading your WordPress files, you can start importing your database to the live server. Most WordPress hosting providers offer cPanel to manage your hosting account, so we’ll show you how to create a database using cPanel.

First, you need to log in to your cPanel dashboard and click on the MySQL Databases icon which can be found in the databases section.

Database section in cpanel

On the next screen, create a database by entering a name for your database and clicking the Create Database button.

New database

After creating your database, scroll down to the MySQL Users section and create or add an existing user to the database.

After adding the user, cPanel will take you to set MySQL privileges for that user. Simply grant all privileges to the user by making sure every box is checked, and then click the Make Changes button.

grant all privileges to database user

Step 4: Import WordPress Database on Live Site

The next step in the process is to import your WordPress database.

Go to your cPanel dashboard, scroll down to the databases section and click on phpMyAdmin.

This will take you to phpMyAdmin where you want to click on the database you created in Step 3. PhpMyAdmin will show your new database with no tables.

Click on the Import tab in the top menu. On the import page, click on Choose File button and then select the database file you saved in Step 1.

Lastly, press the Go button at the bottom of the page. PhpMyadmin will now import your WordPress database.

Import database via phpMyAdmin

Step 5: Change the Site URL

Now you need to change the site URL in your database, so that it will connect with your live WordPress site.

In phpMyAdmin, look for the wp_options table in your database that we just imported in step 4. If you changed your database prefix, then instead of wp_options it might be {prefix}_options.

Click on the Browse button next to wp_options or the link that you see in the sidebar to open the page with a list of fields within the wp_options table. See screenshot below:

Browse the wp options table

Under the field options_name, you need to look for siteurl. Click the Edit Field icon which can be found at the far left at the beginning of the row.

Edit siteurl in phpMyAdmin

When you click the edit field, an edit field window will appear. In the input box for option_value, you will see the URL of your local install probably something like: http://localhost/test. Carefully insert your new site url in this field, for example: https://www.wpbeginner.com

Save the field by clicking the Go button.

edit the siteurl field

Next, you need to replicate this step for the option name: home. The wp_options page can be a few pages long, so simply find the home tab.

Usually it is on the second page which you can navigate to by clicking on the pagination arrows in phpMyAdmin.

Update the home url to be the same as your siteurl.

Step 6: Setup Your Live Site

Now that we have imported the database and all of our content should be uploaded, it’s time to configure WordPress.

At this time, your site should be showing an Error Establishing Database Connection error.

To fix this, connect to your website using an FTP client and edit wp-config.php file.

You will need to provide the database name, user and password you created earlier in Step 3.

Next, save the wp-config.php file and upload it back to your server.

You can now visit your website, and it should be live now.

Next, you need to login to your WordPress admin panel and go to Settings » General. Without changing anything, scroll to the bottom and click the Save Changes button.

This will ensure that the site URL is corrected anywhere else that it needs to be.

After that go to Settings » Permalink and click Save Changes to ensure that all post links are working fine.

Step 7: Fix Images and Broken Links by Updating Paths

Whenever you are moving a WordPress site from one domain to another, or from local server to a live site, you’ll face broken links and missing images.

You can either use the SQL query or use the Velvet Blues WordPress plugin.

For those who want to do it via SQL, here is a simple SQL query that should solve this problem:

UPDATE wp_posts SET post_content = REPLACE(post_content, 'localhost/test/', 'www.yourlivesite.com/');

Simply go to phpMyAdmin, click on your database and then click on SQL from top menu. Write this query, but don’t forget to change it with your own local site and live site URLs.

Fixing WordPress images and broken URLs after moving to live site

That’s all, you have successfully migrated WordPress from localserver to a live site!

Hopefully now your live website is up and running smoothly. Be sure to check out your website to make sure that everything is working as expected. If you notice any errors, you can check out our guide to common WordPress errors for help troubleshooting.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

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884 Comments

Leave a Reply
  1. Kevin says:
    Feb 11, 2021 at 2:48 am

    In buying a domain and web host to move my wp local site to a live serve, do I need to purchase a WordPress hosting or an ordinary web hosting???
    I’m confused because some web hosting services have WordPress hosting and web hosting as two different options.

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Feb 11, 2021 at 10:44 am

      It would depend on the hosting provider, some you can place it on either and one is optimized for WordPress while other hosts only allow WordPress on their WordPress hosting.

      Reply
  2. Bob Cline says:
    Feb 8, 2021 at 3:39 pm

    Step 4. Runing The Migration Script
    After you have uploaded the migration files, you need to visit the following URL in your browser:

    example.com/installer.php

    Don’t forget to replace example.com with your own domain name.

    I do this, but the Duplicator Migration Wizard never starts. Any ideas?

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Feb 9, 2021 at 9:41 am

      You would want to ensure you placed the files in the correct folder on your hosting for the most common reason for that issue.

      Reply
  3. Ameer Hamza says:
    Feb 8, 2021 at 7:25 am

    Hi! i want to move my local wordpress site to another local wordpress site using xampp so method will work for me or not?

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Feb 8, 2021 at 11:15 am

      You should be able to use this method for transferring to a different localhost as well.

      Reply
  4. Armel says:
    Jan 25, 2021 at 7:46 am

    Hi dear team,
    Thanks for this helpful article.
    Please, if my domain has already an existing website and i wanted to update with my new website developed in localhost, how can i update my new website ?
    Thanks for all

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Jan 25, 2021 at 12:04 pm

      You would want to create a backup of the current live site, remove the live site, then follow the instructions in this guide.

      Reply
      • Armel says:
        Jan 28, 2021 at 9:42 am

        Thanks for your reply

        Reply
  5. JC says:
    Jan 4, 2021 at 11:59 am

    I followed your steps for the manual process. Everything worked until i tried to update the posts in the PHPmyadmin. The urls doesn’t seem to update when i run the query.

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Jan 5, 2021 at 9:32 am

      You would want to ensure you replace the localhost/test and the yourlivesite.com with the correct addresses.

      Reply
  6. Montu says:
    Dec 27, 2020 at 11:34 pm

    I am setting up my site using manual method (method #2) and have followed till step no. 4 without any error.

    However, after added my DB login details in wp-config.php file, now the site (WP set up page) is not appearing and the site keeps loading with a blank screen eternally.

    I don’t know if something is missing or went wrong. I see no error message, just a blank, loading screen.

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Dec 29, 2020 at 10:33 am

      You may want to go through our recommendations in our article below:

      https://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-fix-the-wordpress-white-screen-of-death/

      The most common reasons would be if you didn’t add the correct database name.

      Reply
      • Montu says:
        Dec 31, 2020 at 3:36 am

        Thank you!!

        It worked like a charm! It was the incorrect settings in wp-config file.

        You are a champ!

        Thanks again!

        Reply
        • WPBeginner Support says:
          Dec 31, 2020 at 9:23 am

          Glad we could help :)

  7. Susan R. says:
    Dec 12, 2020 at 3:40 pm

    Thank you, thank you, thank you!! I am a novice, but your tutorials gave me the confidence to build a WP site on Localhost and then upload it to my new host. All went smoothly. I really appreciate all that you provide.

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Dec 14, 2020 at 11:35 am

      Glad our guides could help you :)

      Reply
  8. Paa says:
    Dec 9, 2020 at 12:28 pm

    I used the manual method and have issues.

    Homepage of the site shows on the live server however other pages when I click redirect me to localhost pages and I cannot seem to find out to solve this.

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Dec 10, 2020 at 9:22 am

      The most common reason for that specific issue would be if you skipped the Velvet Blues step in this guide to update your URLs

      Reply
  9. Marek says:
    Nov 29, 2020 at 5:22 pm

    Can I change my test site to live site in-place ? I mean I need to convert test site into live site on the same localhost.

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Nov 30, 2020 at 11:47 am

      If you mean on the same hosting provider, then that would be more of a staging site in which case you would want to take a look at our guide below:

      https://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-create-staging-environment-for-a-wordpress-site/

      Reply
  10. Zion says:
    Nov 25, 2020 at 5:25 am

    Pls what do you mean by
    “To fix this, connect to your website using an FTP client and edit wp-config.php file?”

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Nov 25, 2020 at 10:13 am

      We link to it earlier in the article but we have a guide on how to use FTP:

      https://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/how-to-use-ftp-to-upload-files-to-wordpress-for-beginners/

      Reply
  11. Ken says:
    Nov 4, 2020 at 2:10 am

    When I am editing the staging site, there would be orders happening on my live site. How do I make sure that when I upload my staging site into my live site that the new orders would also be captured?

    Thanks

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Nov 4, 2020 at 10:32 am

      You would want to pause receiving orders during that update process to prevent issues

      Reply
  12. Jana Boswell says:
    Oct 20, 2020 at 1:58 pm

    WOW, this is perfect! I could NOT migrate my site or get any of this to work before. Working with my hosting company didn’t help – they only gave me bits of information that didn’t make any sense to me. I followed your step-by-step instructions and my site is up and running! I can’t thank you enough!

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Oct 21, 2020 at 9:42 am

      Glad our guide was helpful :)

      Reply
  13. MarkT. says:
    Oct 7, 2020 at 7:10 am

    Where can I find my login info? I didn’t see the login details from the steps, now I cannot login in to my wordpress dashboard.

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Oct 7, 2020 at 10:29 am

      You would use the same login information from your local installation to log into your site.

      Reply
  14. Deb Marvin says:
    Sep 17, 2020 at 11:55 pm

    Is there a way to migrate part of a development site and not the whole site?

    I would like to migrate certain updated pages and content that is ready to go live without also migrating functionality or content that is still under development.

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Sep 18, 2020 at 10:29 am

      You could manually do what it sounds like you’re wanting to do by using the built-in exporter under Tools>Export and selecting the specific pages

      Reply
  15. Edidiomg says:
    Sep 14, 2020 at 4:50 am

    If in the place of using an FTP, I decide to compress and upload to my cpanel then extract there, will it make any difference?

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Sep 15, 2020 at 1:14 pm

      As long as your hosting provider allows you to do that it should be fine.

      Reply
  16. Angela Grace Vaculik says:
    Sep 11, 2020 at 12:53 pm

    Hello,
    I have tried to upload my wordpress site created on my localhost, and used Method 1. All went well until I got to the Duplicator portion – Step 2. There is no “port” field as shown on your screenshot, so I just enter “localhost”. When I click “test database” I get a fail warning to “verify host connection” which says “unable to connect user to host”. I tried some of the troubleshoot steps to resolve but none of these work. One of the troubleshoot points states “On some servers, the default name ‘localhost’ will not work. Be sure to contact your hosting provider”. Could this be the problem?

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Sep 14, 2020 at 3:19 pm

      More than likely, you would want to reach out to the support for your hosting provider and they should be able to assist.

      Reply
  17. Hawareyaw Petros says:
    Aug 27, 2020 at 10:21 am

    Is it possible to transfer a single post from local to live word press site?

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Aug 27, 2020 at 10:46 am

      You would go under Tools>Export and select the single post using the options available there :)

      Reply
  18. Oladipupo Ajisegiri says:
    Aug 24, 2020 at 10:33 am

    This post is a life saver!!!

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Aug 25, 2020 at 10:41 am

      Glad our guide was helpful :)

      Reply
  19. david kule says:
    Aug 17, 2020 at 6:01 am

    thank you guys!!
    i followed the steps it’s working for me
    your save my life

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Aug 18, 2020 at 10:54 am

      You’re welcome :)

      Reply
  20. Sunita says:
    Aug 15, 2020 at 1:48 am

    Really Thanks:)…It’s a great tutorial and it’s very helpful to me..
    one thing i asked you..can you tell me how to open wp dashboard after this??

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Aug 17, 2020 at 1:45 pm

      You would want to add /wp-admin to the end of your domain and that should bring you to the login page where you would use the same login information as on your local install.

      Reply
  21. Sunita says:
    Aug 15, 2020 at 1:27 am

    Really Thanks:)…It’s a great tutorial and it’s very helpful to me..

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Aug 17, 2020 at 1:42 pm

      You’re welcome :)

      Reply
  22. gerardo says:
    Aug 14, 2020 at 2:53 pm

    HI! i have a live site fully operational but on localhost i make a new site, mostly design. If i migrate it using some pluguin like duplicator, the info from the old site would be deleted?

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Aug 17, 2020 at 1:34 pm

      It would not remove your local site but if you’re trying to install it where a site is already installed then you would run into overwriting issues.

      Reply
  23. Grace Lee says:
    Aug 10, 2020 at 10:59 pm

    After moving my website to a live site, will I still be able to edit and make changes to it? Thanks!

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Aug 11, 2020 at 10:54 am

      Yes, you would be able to :)

      Reply
  24. Ifeanyi says:
    Aug 8, 2020 at 8:57 pm

    Easy to follow guide. Even easier than some videos i have watched on youtube.

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Aug 10, 2020 at 3:04 pm

      Glad you’ve found our content helpful :)

      Reply
  25. Temidayo Marvel says:
    Aug 8, 2020 at 2:52 am

    Great solution to my Problem.
    Thanks

    is it safe and easy to use premium themes and plugins on the wampsever while testing and setting up the WordPress site locally, or do I need to deploy my themes and plugins after importing the site to a livehost.

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Aug 10, 2020 at 1:41 pm

      You would want to check with the support for the theme and plugins you’re wanting to use for if they work on local sites or not.

      Reply
  26. Israel says:
    Jul 31, 2020 at 4:25 pm

    Thanks for the guide, it really helped!

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Aug 3, 2020 at 1:31 pm

      You’re welcome :)

      Reply
  27. Jason Bar says:
    Jul 27, 2020 at 9:35 pm

    I got lost on the part “connect to your live site using an FTP client.”

    That is completely different tutorial where there is no hyperlink to see it.

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Jul 29, 2020 at 10:06 am

      We will be sure to work on improving clarity of this in the future, we linked to our guide on FTP at the start of our article, you can find the FTP guide below:

      https://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/how-to-use-ftp-to-upload-files-to-wordpress-for-beginners/

      Reply
      • Jason Bar says:
        Jul 29, 2020 at 12:29 pm

        Thank you, I missed it.

        Reply
  28. Janith says:
    Jul 24, 2020 at 4:15 pm

    Method 1 worked fine afrter few refreshes in the step 2. Thanks

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Jul 27, 2020 at 11:36 am

      Glad our guide was able to help :)

      Reply
  29. Ashley Davies says:
    Jul 2, 2020 at 1:29 pm

    Thanks for the article, I have run into a problem doing method 1. In step 4, when I visit the url at mysite/installer.php, I get an error from duplicator as follows:

    ‘Archive not found! The ‘Required File’ below should be present in the ‘Extraction Path’. The archive file name must be the exact name of the archive file placed in the extraction path character for character.’

    Any help with this would be greatly appreciated

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Jul 7, 2020 at 11:15 am

      You would want to check with your hosting provider that the file is located in the correct location in your files.

      Reply
  30. STEPHEN OFORI says:
    Jul 2, 2020 at 12:26 pm

    Wow… I can believe my eyes. It worked perfectly with the first option. God bless you.

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Jul 7, 2020 at 11:16 am

      Glad our guide was helpful :)

      Reply
  31. Temitope Durotoye says:
    Jun 28, 2020 at 5:56 pm

    Thank you so much for this… Really helped me a lot.

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Jun 30, 2020 at 11:12 am

      You’re welcome, glad our guide was helpful :)

      Reply
  32. Elías Sánchez says:
    Jun 23, 2020 at 11:20 pm

    I suffer with this kind of stuff, in fact today i spent a lot of hours doing this migration from local to a server.

    Reading and following this helped a lot.
    Thanks for sharing!

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Jun 24, 2020 at 9:03 am

      You’re welcome, glad our guide could help with this process :)

      Reply
  33. Yusuf Omotoso says:
    Jun 9, 2020 at 8:24 am

    The post is really helpful just like many other posts. Thank you

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Jun 9, 2020 at 9:29 am

      You’re welcome :)

      Reply
  34. Luz Manalo-Cruz says:
    May 27, 2020 at 5:03 am

    Hi. I’ve successfully migrated from localhost to livesite! Yay! What now do I do with the localhost?

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      May 27, 2020 at 9:46 am

      That would be a personal preference question whether you would like to keep it or remove it.

      Reply
  35. Luz Manalo-Cruz says:
    May 25, 2020 at 11:18 pm

    Hi! Using Method 1, all went well until Step 4 – the migration wizard doesn’t launch when I type in example.com/installer.php (I changed example.com to my domain). Instead I get a Page Not Found. I’ve tried this twice now and I get the same Page Not Found screen on Step 4. Am I missing a step?

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      May 27, 2020 at 9:17 am

      You may want to ensure you placed the file inside the correct folder, you can check with your hosting provider and they should be able to assist.

      Reply
  36. Habibul Islam says:
    May 15, 2020 at 11:50 pm

    Thanks. I have done migration by 1st method.

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      May 18, 2020 at 3:40 pm

      Glad our guide could assist :)

      Reply
  37. Milutin says:
    May 2, 2020 at 6:05 am

    If someone has problems on Method 1 Step 4 with cPanel host name (error text: No such file or directory), instead of localhost, try mysql. This step always bugs me off nad frustrates me.

    Thanks for the great tutorial! Used it multiple times!

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      May 4, 2020 at 1:49 pm

      Thanks for sharing what worked for you :)

      Reply
  38. Purushothaman Gempuraj says:
    Apr 17, 2020 at 10:23 am

    Thanks. The first Duplicator based method worked for AWS based AMI Linux server 2 which had external database connection as well.

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Apr 17, 2020 at 10:28 am

      Glad our recommendation worked for you :)

      Reply
  39. Meredith Bashert says:
    Apr 14, 2020 at 4:49 pm

    I’m still seeing “error establishing a database connection.” I don’t have a domain name set yet (waiting until the site is complete) so I used the domain name that I used to log in to the FTP client as my option value in my wp_options.

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Apr 15, 2020 at 8:53 am

      For that error, the domain you set is likely correct but you would want to double-check your username and password for your wp-config file

      Reply
  40. Husain says:
    Apr 4, 2020 at 10:22 am

    Dear WpBeginner team,
    In case i already have a website running on my live server (Hosting) and i want to upload a new site on it, so do i need to manually delete all the old files ?

    Please advise.

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Apr 6, 2020 at 2:29 pm

      If you are using the manual method from this article you would overwrite the files currently on your hosting rather than deleting them.

      Reply
  41. Paul K says:
    Apr 4, 2020 at 6:56 am

    Thank you so much for the instructions. The manual way was way simpler and faster than any plugin I tried.

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Apr 6, 2020 at 2:29 pm

      Glad our guide could help :)

      Reply
  42. Rehman Ali says:
    Feb 26, 2020 at 2:45 pm

    Thanks! Just followed and migrated my site using method 1. Thanks!

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Feb 27, 2020 at 8:45 am

      You’re welcome, glad our recommended method was able to assist :)

      Reply
  43. Lia says:
    Feb 1, 2020 at 3:24 pm

    Thank you for that great tutorial! It was really help

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Feb 3, 2020 at 8:52 am

      You’re welcome, glad our guide was helpful :)

      Reply
  44. JLA says:
    Jan 19, 2020 at 11:16 pm

    you forgot to include in method the wp-config.php file to edit database connection

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Jan 21, 2020 at 1:25 pm

      As the database is being copied from your local environment it means you will not need to edit the wp-config normally

      Reply
  45. Oni says:
    Jan 9, 2020 at 3:04 pm

    Thank you very much for this update. I really appreciate.

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Jan 10, 2020 at 10:13 am

      You’re welcome :)

      Reply
  46. Beth says:
    Nov 19, 2019 at 2:13 pm

    I am completely stuck on Method 1 Step 3 – when i try to connect in FileZilla it keeps saying “Could not connect to server”. Please help!

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Nov 20, 2019 at 9:54 am

      The most common reason would be your FTP information being incorrect, if you reach out to your hosting provider they should be able to assist.

      Reply
  47. Shubham says:
    Oct 20, 2019 at 3:22 am

    After exporting my website from local host i couldn’t import it to another wordpress which is live . This was because of file size limit. Any suggestion in this regard.

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Oct 21, 2019 at 10:35 am

      For that error, you would want to take a look at our guide here:
      https://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-increase-the-maximum-file-upload-size-in-wordpress/

      Reply
  48. Peter says:
    Aug 29, 2019 at 9:29 am

    The Mamp guys have now a publish to live site function in the pro version.

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Aug 29, 2019 at 10:23 am

      Thanks for sharing that information :)

      Reply
  49. Claudia says:
    Aug 5, 2019 at 11:55 am

    Thank you so much for your tutorial. I built the website on localhost, thanks to your tutorial about it. I have a question about this process of going from local to live though.

    I currently have a page online and working. I wantred to change it, so that was the reason I developed the new site on localhost. What I would like to know is if I should do something else before using this tutorial to put the local site live.
    Should I delete all data from the current page and then upload the local one? or what should I do.

    Thank you so much!

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Aug 6, 2019 at 10:08 am

      If you are wanting to replace the current page, then it would be best to create a backup of the live site and then remove it to replace it with the version you are moving from your local installation.

      Reply
      • Claudia says:
        Aug 6, 2019 at 10:42 am

        Thank you very much for your answer!

        By the way. I LOVE your page, it has been my go-to page to find reliable answers.

        Reply
        • WPBeginner Support says:
          Aug 7, 2019 at 9:46 am

          Glad we can be helpful :)

  50. Ola Philips says:
    Jul 13, 2019 at 10:21 am

    Thanks for the tutorial, it has helped me a lot , please, after uploading my WordPress file, how do I get to my WordPress dashboard

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Jul 15, 2019 at 11:30 am

      You would log into your site to be brought to the admin area. We have a guide for finding your login url here: https://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/how-to-find-your-wordpress-login-url/ :)

      Reply
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