How to Migrate Your WordPress Site From SiteGround

Although we don't have the ability to automatically migrate sites from SiteGround accounts, we have outlined the steps for a manual migration from SiteGround that you might find helpful. We have Support technicians that are happy to assist with complimentary migrations, so feel free to reach out us via email, live chat, or phone if you would like to request a manual migration. That being said, If you would like to attempt the process yourself you can follow these steps: 

                    

Moving Files and Database From SiteGround

1. Login to your SiteGround account at: https://my.siteground.com/

2. Click the "WEBSITES" tab at the top of your account portal.

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3. Click "SITE TOOLS" button for the website you want to migrate. If you have multiple websites you will need to view the Site Tools for each site to download the files and database.

4. Click "Site" on the left-hand side and then click "File Manager" to access your site files.

5. Right click on the public_html folder (where your site's files will live) and click Archive to make a .zip of the entire public_html folder. You can give the .zip file any name that you would prefer.

6. One the .zip file has been created, right click the .zip file and click "Download" to download the file to your local computer. 

7. Still on the Site Tab of your SiteGround account, you can now click the "MySQL button" to download your site's database.

8. Click the "PHPMYADMIN" tab at the top and then click "ACCESS PHPMYADMIN" to be brought into PhpMyAdmin to view the database for your site. 

9. In most cases the database will display on the left-hand side of PhpMyAdmin with the domain in parentheses for you to know you are clicking on the correct database name for your site. Click on the database and then click "Export" at the top of the screen.

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10. You can click the Go button which will download a .sql file containing your entire database. 

11. You now have the .zip file containing your site's files and the .sql file containing your site's database. You should repeat this process for any other sites you want to migrate to Create.com. 

 

Moving Files and Database to Create.com (Shared/Reseller plan)

1. Login to your Create.com cPanel. You can usually do this by clicking Hosting > Manage > Login to cPanel within your billing account at https://billing.create.com

2. Before proceeding to upload your files, we do recommend to Click WordPress Manager by Softaculous to install an empty WordPress site. This will automatically create a database, a database user, and all of the default WordPress files which will make this process a bit easier. If you are not sure how to use Softaculous we have more information here:  Installing WordPress in Softaculous

3. Click File Manager to upload your .zip file that you downloaded from SiteGround. Navigate to the public_html folder or the folder that corresponds with the primary domain or addon domain you are migrating to Create.com. Click on the Upload Button and "Select File" to select the .zip for upload. Once the upload is complete, you can click "Go Back to" button at the bottom to be brought back into the file manager where you will see your .zip file has been uploaded.

4. Right click on the .zip file and click "Extract". You can leave the path alone and click "Extract File(s)". You will now see a "public_html" folder that contains the data from the .zip file you migrated from SiteGround. 

5. Navigate into your new folder and right-click the wp-config.php file and click Delete. We will be using the wp-config.php file that was auto-generated by Softaculous in Step 2. You can now click "Select All" and right click and select "Copy" to copy these files to the directory where your site's files will live. In most cases the path would be /public_html

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The process of copying everything from your SiteGround .zip to the current folder where your site's files will live will keep any existing files and only add the files that are new. 

6. Click the cP icon in the top left of the screen to be brought back to cPanel. Click PhpMyAdmin to get started with importing the database. In many cases you can just click on the only datababase that is there, but if you are unsure or you have multiple databases, you should refer to the wp-config.php file that was generated when you created the Softaculous install.

7. Click Import. You will then click "Choose File" to select the .sql file you downloaded. Click Go at the bottom of the screen to start importing the database. NOTE: If your .sql file is above 50MB we recommend reaching out to Support for assistance.  LINK TO ARTICLE FOR IMPORTING DATABASE OVER 50MB

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8. If everything went well you should get a Green checkmark and the message at the top of the screen "Import has been successfully finished".

Moving Files and Database to Create.com (WordPress plan)

1. Login to your billing account at https://billing.create.com and click the button that says WordPress on the left-hand side. 

2. Click "Manage" Button for the site that you want to migrate to Create.com. If a site doesn't exist for the domain name you are migrating from SiteGround, you should click "Add Site" to make sure it is created first.

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3. Click cPanel Tools and then "File Manager" button. 

4. Navigate to the public_html folder. Click on the Upload Button and "Select File" to select the .zip for upload. Once the upload is complete, you can click "Go Back to" button at the bottom to be brought back into the file manager where you will see your .zip file has been uploaded.

5. Right click on the .zip file and click "Extract". You can leave the path alone and click "Extract File(s)". You will now see a "public_html" folder that contains the data from the .zip file you migrated from SiteGround. 

6. Navigate into your new folder and right-click the wp-config.php file and click Delete. We will be using the wp-config.php file that was auto-generated by Softaculous in Step 2. You can now click "Select All" and right click and select "Copy" to copy these files to the directory where your site's files will live. In most cases the path would be /public_html

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The process of copying everything from your SiteGround .zip to the current folder where your site's files will live will keep any existing files and only add the files that are new. 

7. Click the cP icon in the top left of the screen to be brought back to cPanel. Click PhpMyAdmin to get started with importing the database. In many cases you can just click on the only datababase that is there, but if you are unsure or you have multiple databases, you should refer to the wp-config.php file that was generated when you created the Softaculous install.

8. Click Import. You will then click "Choose File" to select the .sql file you downloaded. Click Go at the bottom of the screen to start importing the database. NOTE: If your .sql file is above 50MB we recommend reaching out to Support for assistance.  LINK TO ARTICLE FOR IMPORTING DATABASE OVER 50MB

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9. If everything went well you should get a Green checkmark and the message at the top of the screen "Import has been successfully finished".

 

Issues With Database Import?

If you get an error when importing your database, you can always reach out to Support via live chat, phone, or email. In most cases either the database is too large: LINK TO ARTICLE FOR IMPORTING DATABASE OVER 50MB  or the database contains duplicate entries. 

       

One way to make sure the database import is as clean as possible is to click "MySQL Databases" in cPanel (or the cPanel tools button for WordPress packages) and delete the database. Then recreate the database to make a completely empty database. Make sure you rename the database to have the exact same name. You can now try re-importing into PhpMyAdmin, and hopefully you will not have any issues. Otherwise, feel free to reach out to Support  at https://support.create.com for extra assistance! 

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