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Migrating your WordPress website from your current hosting provider to Cloudways is super easy with the WordPress Migrator Plugin at zero cost, no matter how many applications you migrate.
In this tutorial, you will learn how to migrate your WordPress website to Cloudways using the free WordPress Migrator Plugin. Whether you use Cloudways Flexible or Autoscale, this guide is for you. You can also migrate your WooCommerce applications to Cloudways using the same plugin. So, let’s get started.
How to Use Cloudways WordPress Migrator Plugin
Video Tutorial
Prerequisites
Here are a few prerequisites before migrating your application to Cloudways:
You should have a Cloudways account.
Admin access to your current WordPress website hosted on another hosting provider.
First of all, please select your platform:
Cloudways Flexible
Step #1 — Launch an Application on Cloudways
You need to launch a WordPress application on the Cloudways Platform. This application will serve as a destination to test your migrated website.
You can launch a new WordPress application on a new or existing server. For this example, we launched a WordPress application on an existing server and named it ‘Destination’.
Classic Interface
New Interface
Step #2 — Install WordPress Migrator Plugin
Next, you must install the Cloudways WordPress Migrator Plugin on your existing WordPress application hosted at another hosting provider. Here’s how you can do it.
Visit your WordPress admin panel and Log In with your credentials.
Select Plugins.
Click Add New.
Next, search for Cloudways WordPress Migrator Plugin.
Click Install Now.
Once the plugin is installed, click Activate.
Next, a migration wizard will appear where you can start inputting the information to kickstart the migration process, as shown in the next step.
Suppose you clicked Activate but did not start adding information to the migration wizard, which is displayed immediately. In that case, you can locate the migration wizard again by selecting Cloudways Migrate from the sidebar in your WordPress admin panel.
Step #3 — Initiate Migration
Next, you will initiate the migration process after entering the following details in the migration wizard:
Enter your email address.
Next, agree to the terms & conditions and privacy policy.
Click Migrate.
Here, you need to enter the following information in the form to initiate the migration:
Next, choose your Platform: Cloudways Flexible or Autonomous.
Enter your Destination Site URL. This is the URL of your application that you launched on Cloudways in the first step.
Enter your SFTP Host/Server Address. This is your Cloudways server’s IP address.
Enter your Database Name.
Tip:
You can review this section to get application information.
Next, enter your SFTP Username. Your SFTP username is your Master username.
Enter your SFTP Password. This is your master user’s password.
Under “HTTP Auth enabled?”, select No as we have not set up any password to visit the Cloudways-hosted application. If your Cloudways-hosted site is restricted and password-protected, select Yes and enter the username and password.
Under “Any root directories you want to migrate?”, select Yes if you also want to migrate your custom non-WordPress directories present in the public_html directory. Otherwise, select No if you don’t wish to migrate your custom directories.
Under "Migrate additional database tables," select Yes if you also want to migrate any additional database tables and mark them; otherwise, select No.
Under “Is this site protected?”, select No if your current WordPress website on another host is not restricted and is not password-protected. If password-protected, select Yes and enter the username and password.
Finally, click Migrate.
Tip:
You can review this section to get SFTP-related information.
How to Find Application Information?
How to Find Application Information?
To find your application information, follow these steps:
From the top menu bar, open Servers.
Then, choose the server where your desired application is deployed.
Classic Interface
New Interface
3. Next, click www.
4. Choose your application’s name.
Classic Interface
New Interface
Here, you will find your (4) Destination Application URL, (5) SFTP Host/Server Address (IP address), and (6) Database Name.
Classic Interface
New Interface
Under Application Details, you will find your (4) Destination Application URL.
Under SSH/SFTP, you will find your (5) SFTP Host/Server Address (IP address).
Under Database, you will find your (6) Database Name.
How to Find SFTP-Related Information?
How to Find SFTP-Related Information?
To find SFTP username and password, follow these steps:
From the top menu bar, open Servers.
Then, choose and click the server where your desired application is deployed.
Classic Interface
New Interface
You will find your (7) SFTP Username and (8) SFTP Password here.
Classic Interface
New Interface
That’s it! The migration has successfully begun. The time required depends on the size of the data being migrated.
Step #4 — Test Your Migrated Site
Once the migration is completed, you can test your site by clicking Go to Cloudways or simply visiting your Cloudways-hosted application. Please note that your Cloudways-hosted application will have new WP-admin credentials available on the Cloudways Platform. More information is here.
Tips:
Are you having a problem viewing your site? Purge the Varnish cache from the Cloudways Platform.
If you do not wish to migrate the website yourself, you can also request Managed Application Migration, in which our cloud experts do the heavy lifting and move your site to Cloudways. With your Cloudways account, you get one free managed migration.
You can follow this checklist to take your website online from Cloudways.
Cloudways Autonomous
Step #1 — Launch an Application on Cloudways
You need a WordPress application to launch on the Cloudways Platform. This application will serve as a destination to test your migrated website.
To launch a WordPress application, you must subscribe to a Cloudways Autonomous plan. For this example, we launched a WordPress Application named ‘Destination’.
Step #2 — Install WordPress Migrator Plugin
Next, you must install the Cloudways WordPress Migrator Plugin on your existing WordPress application hosted at another hosting provider. Here’s how you can do it.
Visit your WordPress admin panel and Log In with your credentials.
Select Plugins.
Click Add New.
Next, search for Cloudways WordPress Migrator Plugin.
Click Install Now.
Once the plugin is installed, click Activate.
Next, a migration wizard will appear where you can start inputting the information to kickstart the migration process, as shown in the next step.
Suppose you clicked Activate but did not start adding information to the migration wizard, which is displayed immediately. In that case, you can locate the migration wizard again by selecting Cloudways Migrate from the sidebar in your WordPress admin panel.
Step #3 — Initiate Migration
Next, you will initiate the migration process after entering the following details:
Enter your email address.
Next, agree to the terms & conditions and privacy policy.
Click Migrate.
Here, you need to enter the following information in the form to initiate the migration:
Next, choose your Platform: Cloudways Flexible or Autonomous.
Enter your Destination Site URL. This is the URL of your application that you launched on Cloudways in the first step.
Enter your SFTP Host/Server Address. This is your Cloudways host address.
Next, enter your SFTP Username. Your SFTP username is your default username.
Enter your SFTP Password. This is your default user’s password.
Under “HTTP Auth enabled?”, select No as we have not set up any password to visit the Cloudways-hosted application. If your Cloudways-hosted site is restricted and password-protected, select Yes and enter the username and password.
Under “Any root directories you want to migrate?”, select Yes if you also want to migrate your custom non-WordPress directories present in the public_html directory. Otherwise, select No if you don’t wish to migrate your custom directories.
Under "Migrate additional database tables," select Yes if you also want to migrate any additional database tables and mark them; otherwise, select No.
Under “Is this site protected?”, select No if your current WordPress website on another host is not restricted or password-protected. If it is password-protected, then select Yes and enter the username and password.
Finally, click Migrate.
That’s it! The migration has successfully begun. The time required depends on the size of the data being migrated.
Step #4 — Test Your Migrated Site
Once the migration is completed, you can test your site by clicking Go to Cloudways or simply visiting your Cloudways-hosted application. Please note that your Cloudways-hosted application will have new WP-admin credentials available on the Cloudways Platform. More information is here.
Tips:
Are you having a problem viewing your site? Purge the Varnish cache from the Cloudways Platform.
If you do not wish to migrate the website yourself, you can also request Managed Application Migration, in which our cloud experts do the heavy lifting and move your site to Cloudways. With your Cloudways account, you get one free managed migration.
You can follow this checklist to take your website online from Cloudways.
That’s it! We hope this tutorial was helpful. If you need any help, then feel free to search your query on Cloudways Support Center or contact us via chat (Need a Hand > Send us a Message). Alternatively, you can also create a support ticket.
With Cloudways’ optimized configurations and proactive server management, you can get rid of errors like 413 error for good. Choose our WordPress hosting server and experience a seamless, managed hosting environment.
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