Migrating WordPress site from development directory to root directory

  • Resolved mcelroyb

    (@mcelroyb)


    9 years, 7 months ago

    I was attempting to follow these instructions (https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Moving_WordPress — the section entitled “Moving Directories on Your Existing Server”), when I had a major problem. I believe I might have deleted a couple of directories in my root folder when I was removing file to prepare the root for the WordPress files. Unfortunately, I didn’t back up all the folders in the root directory, thinking they were old and not in use anymore, and probably not realizing that my WordPress install in the /wp subdirectory would put anything in the root. The folders I deleted were “login” and “register.” So I was already logged into my dashboard for step 2 and when I was on step 4, everything went haywire. I changed the WordPress URL, but immediately got a message that said “The requested URL was not found on the server.” Could not save, could not go back, was asked repeatedly to sign in again, and ultimately closed out. I now get a 404 error when trying to login to my WordPress dashboard, and when I try to look at my WordPress site in the subdirectory, it’s now showing correctly at all. I’ve put my old website back up. But I must fix this problem somehow. Surely all my content is still there (and I DID back up my /wp directory prior to starting this process. My website is https://www.lewinsville.org. And I had the development site in https://www.lewinsville.org/wp. My admin panel URL is https://www.lewinsville.org/wp/wp-login.php. Thank you.

Viewing 8 replies - 16 through 23 (of 23 total)
  • Thread Starter mcelroyb

    (@mcelroyb)

    And when I say that “some of my theme didn’t make it…” what I mean is that my menu doesn’t appear as it did when in the /wp subdirectory. The drop down menu items from the main horizontal menu are transparent and hard to read over the header images. The drop down menu items used to have a light background color. This is what I don’t know how to fix.

    Moderator James Huff

    (@macmanx)

    Did I do this incorrectly?

    Ok, so what happened is the uploaded files are corrupt.

    See the header image? https://www.lewinsville.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/LPC-Congregation-wp-960×250.gif

    That should be a full image, instead it’s just a corrupt .gif file.

    This means the file was either corrupted during download to your computer (at which point hopefully you have the original still on the server under /wp/wp-content/uploads/ or a backup made prior to the move) or during upload from your computer to the server (at which point the file downloaded to your computer would still be good).

    You didn’t do anything incorrectly, FileZilla basically just corrupted the files during one direction of the transfer. Sadly, it happens from time to time.

    And when I say that “some of my theme didn’t make it…” what I mean is that my menu doesn’t appear as it did when in the /wp subdirectory.

    Check Appearance -> Menus in your blog’s Dashboard, then the locations tab, and make sure you have assigned the menu to a location.

    Thread Starter mcelroyb

    (@mcelroyb)

    Okay on Filezilla.

    On the menu issue…. I went to Appearance ->Menus and the locations tab. In this theme, I have two menus and there are two locations — header and footer. The header menu is assigned to the header location and the footer menu is assigned to the footer location. So I think that’s not the issue.

    I’m wondering if I could and should re-load the theme. Not sure how to do that….

    Moderator James Huff

    (@macmanx)

    Check the Edit Menus tab then, and make sure you actually have saved items in the menus.

    Thread Starter mcelroyb

    (@mcelroyb)

    Yes, the menus are saved. I think the issue is in the theme files.

    I don’t know how to copy the wp-content folder directly from the /wp subfolder on the server to the root directory on the server. If I could do that, perhaps that would solve my corrupt media files issue and my theme issues, because before I migrated the site up from the /wp subdirectory, everything worked just fine. Any thoughts on how to do this?

    Moderator James Huff

    (@macmanx)

    Every FTP client operates differently in that regard. I recommend checking https://wiki.filezilla-project.org/Documentation

    Alternatively, your hosting provider may be able to move the files for you.

    Thread Starter mcelroyb

    (@mcelroyb)

    I wanted to let you know that I decided to see if my Control Panel would let me copy the entire wp-content folder that was in my development subdirectory into my root directory, overwriting what was there. I was able to do this (wish I had thought of that earlier!), and now my site is working perfectly!! See https://www.lewinsville.org.

    Thank you for all your help throughout the night! What a nightmare … and how wonderful to have all resolved now! Many many thanks for your thoughtful help.

    Moderator James Huff

    (@macmanx)

    You’re welcome!

Viewing 8 replies - 16 through 23 (of 23 total)
  • The topic ‘Migrating WordPress site from development directory to root directory’ is closed to new replies.