If you do not wish to use our free migration service, you can migrate your website manually at any time using FTP and the database management tool.
Step 1: Create a new demo box
If you want to migrate your WordPress site to us manually, you’ll first need a new demo box. To do this, log in to your Raidboxes dashboard and then click on the ‘Create new box’ button.
Important: You will set the login details for this new box during the creation process. You should therefore make a note of the login details you enter in the form when creating the box.
Step 2: Replace the wp-content folder in the Demo Box
This step involves three actions:
download the wp-content folder from your current website
connect to the Raidboxes SFTP server
replace the wp-content folder in the Demo Box with the wp-content folder from your site
Download the wp-content folder
To do this, first connect to your current FTP server. There are several ways to do this, but the most common method is to use an FTP client such as FileZilla.
Now connect to your site’s FTP server and navigate to the WordPress directory of your WordPress installation. There, at the top level, you will find the wp-content folder.
Note: Your site’s WordPress folder may have a variety of different names. It may, for example, be called public_html, web, www, wp or wordpress. If you are unsure which folder hosts the WordPress installation, please contact your current hosting provider. They will be able to tell you exactly where your WordPress website is located.
Now select the wp-content folder, right-click on it and select ‘Download’.
The wp-content folder will then be automatically saved to the download directory you have chosen.
Connect to the RAIDBOXES SFTP server
Now close the connection to your live site’s FTP server and open a new connection to the RAIDBOXES SFTP server.
You can find the connection details directly in the Box overview for your Demo Box in the RAIDBOXES dashboard.
Tip: If you’ve forgotten your Raidboxes password, you can use the ‘Forgotten password’ feature on the Raidboxes login page at any time.
Replacing the wp-content folder
Once you’re connected to the Raidboxes SFTP server, navigate to your Box’s folder.
Now use drag and drop to move the wp-content folder from the source site in the left-hand pane directly into the wordpress folder in the right-hand pane.
A window will now open asking you to confirm that you wish to overwrite all existing data with the new data. Select the ‘Overwrite’ option here and also tick the box next to ‘Always perform this action’.
⚠️ Important: You may receive a message regarding the certificate before the actual overwrite process begins (see below). Select the option ‘Always trust this certificate in future’ and then click OK.
Depending on the size of the wp-content folder, the overwrite process may take a little longer.
Step 3: Create a database dump
You will now need a copy of your database – also known as a dump. To do this, first connect to the database with your current hosting provider.
Once you have access, the interface may look like this:
Now create a dump of your database and download it as an SQL file.
Step 4: Upload the database dump to Raidboxes
Now go to the Raidboxes dashboard and navigate to your Box overview.
⚠️ Important: If you are not working with an empty demo Box, make sure you back up your site before continuing. To do this, go to the Backup menu in your BOX and click on ‘Create manual backup’.
Now click on ‘Access’ in the database menu of your demo Box.
You are now in the database management section of your Box. Before we upload the SQL file, we need to delete the existing database in your demo Box. To do this, select all the database tables by clicking the selection box at the bottom of the database view. You will then find the ‘Delete’ option in the drop-down menu; this will delete the entire database.
You now have a completely empty database into which you can upload your database dump. To do this, click on ‘Import’. Now select the database dump and deselect the ‘Stop on errors’ option – in other words, this option must not be selected.
Start the import by clicking on ‘Import’.
Note: The upload limit for database dumps is 2 GB. However, even with larger databases under 2 GB, the upload may time out. If this happens, use alternative migration methods or, if you are an experienced user, try uploading via SSH.
Important: If any errors occur whilst importing the database, don’t panic. Document these errors (e.g. with a screenshot) and proceed to step 5. You should debug these issues once the site has been fully migrated.
Step 5: Change the database prefix
In the next step, we need to adjust the database prefix. To change the prefix, navigate to your Box settings, select ‘WordPress’ on the left-hand side, and then choose ‘WP Table Prefix’.
Now, under the ‘WP Table Prefix’ option, enter the database prefix for the database you have just uploaded and confirm your entry. Your site should now be accessible.
💡Tip: If you don’t know what your database prefix is, open the database management tool and search for the postmeta table. Any characters that appear before the word ‘postmeta’ are your database prefix. In the example below, the prefix is therefore wp_zkhsljgril_
Step 6: Debugging
Unfortunately, errors may occasionally occur on the site following a migration. In such cases, please feel free to contact us: Support
If you are more experienced in this area (e.g. as a developer), enable the debug log and test all the functions on your site. This will allow you to check whether the log shows a specific error.