Once I faced the problem of transferring my WordPress blog to another hosting. Surely I didn’t want to have downtime, headache with making blog on the new host operating properly or in the worst case lose any data. As a result I gathered all available information on transferring site without downtime and my transfer went smoothly. Finally I make this 9 steps guide how to transfer your blog to a new host without losing any data and without experiencing any downtime.

1. Sign up for any web hosting package before cancelling your old web hosting account.

Don’t delete or discard your old hosting package until the end of the whole process.

2. Backup your MySQL database (using phpMyAdmin or other script)

It is most important step. Even if you would lose any of your installation files you can make fresh installation of WordPress (or other CMS) and then import your database.

3. Use an FTP application (such as Filezilla) to copy all your site files from the old host to local computer.

(Disable the WordPress Cache and the WP-Cache plugin if you use it and delete all the files inside the Wp-Content/Cache/ folder – you won’t need them.)
So now you will have full backup for any unforeseen circumstances. Most important is your image directory, blog with hollows instead of pics looks horrible.

4. Upload all the site files to the new host

Probably, you will need to re-chmod your folders.

5. Create a new MySQL Database on the new host and import all the tables from your backup.

I’d recommend if it possible to use the same name for the new database as the old one has.

6. On the old host, change the wp-config.php file to point to the ip address of mysql database on the new host instead of “localhost”

While the old host is still managing your site and the domain name’s servers are still pointing to the old host, the mysql database on the new server will be updated for every comment, post and other activities. There will be no downtime such way.

7. Change the wp-config.php file on the new host with the new user name, password and database name of your new hosting.

Make sure everything is working by using a temporary address at your new web host before you update your name servers.

8. Change the DNS of your domain to the name servers of the new host.

While the changes are happening, the mysql database on the new host will be updated even if the domain is showing pages/info from the previous host. If after you make the transfer you start to get 404 errors on the links you should update the Permalink structure on the Control Panel and make sure that the new host has Mod Rewrite enabled. It will take up to 48 hours for the new DNS to propagate across the Internet (sometimes it can be much faster).

9. You can now cancel your old web hosting and your web site should be fully up and running on your new account.

Finally, your site is active with no downtime experienced at all!