Migrating Joomla from one domain to another

Posted in Tutorials

In this tutorial, we will migrate a Joomla 3 site from an example domain (which we call site A) to another domain (which we will call site B).

We will migrate it to a new database and copy the files from one location to another.  We assume that you have the new destination database and domain space already set up.

1.  First thing, backup both the database and file system of the existing site A.

2.  Export the database using phpMySQL of site A to a sql file.  Open in text editor to see if there are any reference to Site A url.  If so, replace with Site B url.

3.  Import the sql file into Site B’s database.

4. Copy the file system from Site A location to Site B location.

5. Edit the configuration.php file that is in Site B.  And edit the $db, $user, and $password to reference the new database.

6. Test the new site B and the admin login at /administration.

7. Within the administration dashboard, go to “System -> Global Configuration -> System” and update the “Path to Log Folder” to reference the new location of the new site B.

8.  Change the path for “System -> Global Configuration -> Server” and update “Path to Temp Folder”.

9.  Check for any other settings that may need to be changed.

For the most basic cases, this should do it.  But for complex cases, anything can happen and there can be additional complications.   That is why you need to have a backup so that a Joomla developer can help re-install or migrate the site for you.

 

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