Moving Your Joomla Site To A New Web Host

Since every web host is different, and many web masters’ needs change as their sites or blogs grow, it is very likely that a given web master might need to move the entirety of his or her web efforts in one fell swoop. If this is the case, then the web master will want to research the how to of moving the site before hand. In the event you may need to move your Joomla site from one web host to a new web host, you may be pondering just how to best achieve the move to the new web host.

If your Joomla site has been active with your old web host for any significant amount of time, it is very likely that you have all manner of add ons and modules, and very likely don’t want to resort to a brand new Joomla installation at your new web host. There are several reasons to forego the fresh installation route, such as a wealth of content, if you have extensions that require extensive configuration to function correctly or you just prefer to move the whole thing rather than start over.

Download all the Joomla installation files to your local computer system. This collection of files should be accurately named and dated, as it will serve as your backup for the Joomla site, and you will be making extensive alterations to these files later on in the involved process of moving your Joomla site to the new web host.

Now export your Joomla database to the new web host as an SQL file. This file will contain all the commands that will create the new web host database tables and completely fill them with the Joomla site’s data. Don’t miss anything, as the Joomla site naturally won’t work very well without the entire database. It is also a good idea to edit any URL settings for your Joomla site that might not work after the move to the new web host, considering most or possibly all of the links and comments URLs are likely still pointing to the old site, and you will, of course, want them to point to the new Joomla site on the new web host.

After you have moved the entire database for your Joomla site to the new web host, in the backup Joomla files in the folder from the old web host that you downloaded to your home computer you will need to search for and locate the file named configuration.php. Open up the file using any text editor software and make the changes required. You will need to change several settings, such as $mosConfig_absolute_path, $mosConfig_cachepath, $mosConfig_live_site, $mosConfig_host, $mosConfig_db, $mosConfig_user and $mosConfig_password. You will need to edit these settings to properly point the way to the new web host, just as you would edit the SQL files in the Joomla backup folder from earlier.

Once this process has been successfully completed, and your Joomla site is safely at home on the new web host, it is highly advisable that the web master inspect and test all the links, URLs and comment forms to be certain that they are still working after the move to the new web host.

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