1. Home
  2. Docs
  3. Site
  4. Site Migration
  5. How to migrate an existing site from other hosting

How to migrate an existing site from other hosting

FlyWP is a compact server management solution that lets you manage all your servers with a fingertip. Even if you want to migrate an existing site to a newer one, FlyWP will assist you in doing that swiftly.

In this documentation, we’re going to show you how to easily migrate from an existing site to a new site using FlyWP.

Step one: Add server providers

  • The first step that you need to take is adding server providers. Here’s a detailed guide that you can follow to learn how to add servers in FlyWP.
Image 81

In FlyWP, you can add some of the popular server providers like DigitalOcean, Vultr, Akamai, and AWS EC2. Choose your preferred provider and complete the first step.

Step two: Create servers

  • After adding the server providers, you need to create servers. On the server page, you can find the available server providers. Just choose the server provider here and add your credentials to move forward.
Image 82

Also, you can find the details here on how to create servers in FlyWP.

Step three: Create site

  • After creating servers, you now need to create a site on your preferred server. Once you have added the servers, you must see them on the server page.
Image 83
  • After you enter the server, you can see the site lists that were created on the server. As you can see, there are three sites on the list.
Image 84

Important note

We recommend you to create a test site with FlyWP and then transfer your data from your existing/live site. For that, you need to create a test site from here.’

  • You’ll get this after you click on the “create a new site” button. And then tick on the button “Use flywp.xyz test domain
Image 85

  • Choose the PHP version of your test site.
Image 86

  • Now on the installation page, give a site title, admin email, username, and password, and enable Full Page Cache (it will speed up your site’s performance), and then hit the next button.
Image 87

You must get this notice that your site is being created. You have to wait for a while.

Image 88

  • Once the process is completed, you’ll get a dashboard for your new test site. Now click on the “WP Admin” button to directly login to your new site. It’s a magic login feature of FlyWP. You don’t have to access it from a different login page and enter your ID and password. Just click on it and you’ll be automatically logged in.
Image 89

  • Here you go. You can see the new site details on a WordPress dashboard.
Image 90

Step four: Create a backup of your live site

We’ll migrate data from old site to the new site we created in FlyWP. Let’s see how to do it.

Open your existing site plugin area. And add any of your preferred backup plugins. In our case, we’ll go with the Updraft plugin. Search for it, install it, and activate it.

Image 91

  • Then navigate to Settings > Updrafts Plus Backup. Here you’ll find the “Backup Now” button.
Image 92

  • After that, you’ll get a window. Here, check all the boxes. Also, you can check the last box if you want to manually delete the backup file later. Finally, click on the Backup Now button to proceed.
Image 93

  • You can see the backup files are ready to be saved on your device.
Image 94

  1. Since we’re migrating the entire site, saving all these files to your device is better.
  2. Database, Plugins, Themes, Uploads, and Others.
Image 95
  • Make sure you download all the backed up files to your local computer
Image 96

Step five: Importing the old site’s data to the new site

As we have used the Updraft Plus plugin for keeping the backup file, we’ll use it for our new site too. So install and activate the Updraft Plus Backup plugin on the new site.

  • It will look like this after you install and activate the UpdraftPlus plugin on the new site.
Image 98
  • Similarly, navigate to Settings → UpdraftPlus Backups. Here, you can find the “Upload backup files” option. Click on it.
Image 99

  • Now one by one upload the backup files that you saved earlier.
Image 100

  • You can see the backup files are successfully uploaded.
Image 101

  • You can see the files are uploaded here. Check with Select all and click the “Restore” button to continue the import task.
Image 102

  • Here, select all and hit on the next button.
Image 103

  • Click on the restore button to continue.
Image 104

  • Yes, your restoration process is complete.
Image 105


Note: After this process, you’ll be logged out of your account, since you have restored the database and other files. Now, you need to use your old site’s credentials to log in.

Image 106

  • Now login to your new site with old credentials.
Image 107

Finishing Up

Every provider may add some custom configurations. You need to ensure the default WordPress configuration is reflected in the restored site.

Cleanshot 2024 04 05 At 11.54.13@2x

Voila! By this time, your new site should be successfully migrated

Step six (optional): Ensuring you have FlyWP FlyWP Helper plugin installed

  • Go to the plugin area, install the FlyWP Helper plugin, and activate it (if it’s not already activated). It’d make sure all FlyWP-specific features (including caching, emails, magic login works as expected)
Image 112
  • After you activate FlyWP, you can get it here. And you can see it’s connected.
Image 113
  • To ensure it’s working: You can go back to the FlyWP site page and click on “WP Admin” for instant login. If it works fine, then the FlyWP Helper plugin is working as expected.
Image 114

Step 7: Change the domain name to a new URL

You need to change the domain name in the final step.

  • On the dashboard, enter the Settings page.
Image 116
  • Here, replace this name with your original website name
Image 117

Avoid using HTTP:// and HTTPS:// here. Also, don’t include (/) at the end of the URL. When done everything, click on “Save Changes.

Image 118
  • You can see the status of the task. Wait for a few seconds to complete the task
Image 119
  • The site is now live, and you can access it from here.
Image 120

Step Eight: Add a DNS record

Now you need to verify and add the DNS record to your hosting provider’s account. Login to your hosting account and add the server’s IP as a DNS record.

Image 121
  • Here, you can add your website’s IP address as a DNS record on your hosting provider’s account.
Image 122

So that’s how you can migrate an old site to a new site using FlyWP. We hope you find this tutorial helpful.