Yeap, I just moved to another host, this time, I wanted to test BlueHost for a year or maybe 2 years. It’s like a trandition already, that I move hosting every 2 years on average. Which is good, because hosting provider did get busier and upgrade their premium cusotmer than small potato like me.
With so many moving host, I got some experience on moving host wihtout causing downtime. Seriously, just some trick will do. Here are some few steps you’ll need to take. Now this is an advance and cheap but time taking steps, you can always opt for a plugin to do all these though. But I like to get my hand dirty.
Step 1:
Backup (to restore). Essential folder like the theme you use, plugins/, uploads/, oh and .htaccess file.
Step 2:
Go to phpMyAdmin to get the database.
Step 3:
Create/install new WordPress on your new host. Restore all the folders you have from your backup. DO NOT CHANGE YOUR NAME SERVER YET!
Step 4:
Import the database to the new host.
Step 5:
Add the new host name server with your current one.
Domain propagation should take a few hours only. So be caution before you delete your old nameserver. Keep the name server intact first and check www.whois.sc with your domain. Once it stated all 4 name servers, you can start delete the old ones.
Moving around 10 WordPress sites per host migration, these steps become as simple as a symbol barcode scanner for me to point it to an item. However, it is really time taking though. That’s why I did it at my free time 