Main content area not displaying after hosting migration

first, try resetting your custom permalinks back to the default setting and renaming your WordPress .htaccess file. If that works, then try reading Using_Permalinks before setting a custom permalink structure again. If clearing your Permalinks does not alleviate the issue, this could be attributed to anything from a web server configuration to a bad WordPress install.

Thanks, Tara. Permalinks are/were set to “Post name”. Do they need to change to Default?

I ask you to change it to the default setting to see if it works (i.e., if you get your content back).

please re-read my reply for full instruction.

I’ve changed permalinks to Default, and renamed .htaccess, but still no page content. On blog posts, the title and featured image show but no body text. Thanks for your insights.

– Have you discussed this with your new host? what they have to say?
– Check the error logs on your server for a more specific error message. If you need help locating them, ask your hosting provider to help you with that.
– Also, try turning on the debug mode. Simply put this line in your wp-config.php file to enable debug: define ( ‘WP_DEBUG’, true );
– also have a read of this codex in case you missed something: https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Moving_WordPress#Moving_to_a_New_Server

Tara, thanks very much for your help, I appreciate your time.

– The host says they’ve looked at everything on their end and it seems fine, but that they can’t offer support for coding problems.
– The error logs don’t list anything recent, only some problems we were having yesterday
– In Debug mode the page doesn’t even load, it just hangs forever.
– I think everything was done correctly with the migration. No URL’s changed, and the new host helped a lot with ensuring that everything was moved correctly.

I suspect that there’s some code that was implemented to work with the old host that needs to be edited or deleted. I’m working through it with the host now.

The host says they’ve looked at everything on their end and it seems fine, but that they can’t offer support for coding problems.

– There is no problem with the WP core.
– This seems to be a site-specific issue, thus not easy to solve.
– who is your host?

meanwhile also try:
– Flushing any caching plugins you might be running, as well as server and/or browser caches.
– deactivating ALL plugins temporarily to see if this resolves the problem (plugin functions can interfere). If this works, re-activate them individually (one-by-one) to find the problematic plugin(s).
– If that does not resolve the issue, try switching to the unedited default Twenty Fifteen theme for a moment using the WP dashboard to rule out any theme-specific issue (theme functions can interfere like plugins).
– If that does not resolve the issue, try resetting the plugins foldervia FTP or SFTP or whatever file management application your host provides. Sometimes, an apparently inactive plugin can still cause problems.
– If all the above steps do not resolve the issue, then try MANUAL updating. Download a fresh copy of the WordPress .zip file to your computer, unzip it, and use that to copy up all files and folders EXCEPT the wp-config.php file and the /wp-content/ directory. You may need to delete the old copies of files & folder on your server before uploading the new ones. Read the Manual Update directions first.
– If you haven’t already done, always backup everything (including your database) before doing any actions, just in case something really goes wrong.

This issue was resolved, by the original web developer who found some problems with edits to the config file made by the new host.

Tara, thank you so much for your thoughts – I learned a lot by going through your troubleshooting steps, and learned some things that I’m sure will help in the future.

you are most welcome ??