Moving WP site to new domain, lost all the pages

did you follow instructions of this WP codex: https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Moving_WordPress#When_Your_Domain_Name_or_URLs_Change

i did not use those specific instructions, and I am trying to avoid starting over entirely.
The method I used is an appropriate way to transfer a WP site. I have used it many times in the past but I have never dealt with trying to use a ‘temporary URL’.
I guess my main question is this- does using a temporary URL (see above) screw with wordpresses ability to re-establish file paths?

The thing is, we will be switching his domain name to point to this new hosting, so if the temporary URL is known to be problematic then I can easily just wait (instead of starting the process from scratch for no reason).

The method I used is an appropriate way to transfer a WP site.

And what method would that be?

…the one i listed in my first post. Please read the original post.

That’s not one of the methods listed in Moving_WordPress as far as I can tell.

I never claimed it was, it is a way that other tutorials use however, and one that has worked for me before.

What I have never dealt with before though, is using the temporary URL that was provided by the hosting service.

I am really just trying to get someone who understand wordpress better than I do to say whether or not the temporary URL has ever been known to cause problems due to its structure. For example, i cannot access the hosting space through filezilla because the temporary URL i have to use isnt recognized by it.

Hello Theregoesjb,

Were you using any custom permalinks? I would first make sure to reset those. Just set them to default, and then save. Then set them back so that WordPress re-creates the links. Also, we have also dealt with issues where the database is NOT updated with the links. But there’s a pretty easy solution to it.

Download you SQL file (you already have, I believe).

Open the SQL file in a text editor and then do a find and replace with temp URL. That way you replace ALL of the paths and they won’t be missed. Save the file and re-import. This is much easier than using a MySQL update query, but you can do that too, if that’s what you like to do.

Hope that helps!

[sig moderated as per the Forum Rules]

I never claimed it was, it is a way that other tutorials use however, and one that has worked for me before.

Have you reviewed Moving_WordPress? Well that page includes all of THE definitive, quality tested & assured methods of moving your site. If you chose to use some other, homegrown method and hit problems, you’re just going to get pointed right back to that page because these are the methods that we KNOW work.

i mean i completely understand, and that would absolutely be my next move if i dont pinpoint some other minor hangup.
I have reviewed it in the past, and ended up using a youtube tutorial that worked great, which is the same method i used in this case.
I just figured I would throw my situation out there to see if anyone recognized anything glaring (such as missing pages, or temp URL) before I wiped the slate clean and started over.

btw, thank you for the advice arncus. im def going to try that.