Knowledgebase

One of the easiest ways to migrate a WordPress website is to use a migration plugin. Two popular options are All-in-One WP Migration and Duplicator. These plugins allow you to create a copy of your website and move it to your new web hosting account.

For this guide, we will use All-in-One WP Migration. Follow these steps to create a copy of your existing website:

1. Download this migration plugin. Click the green “Code” button and select “Download ZIP”.
2. Log in to the WordPress admin area of your existing website and go to Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin.
3. Upload the ZIP file and activate the plugin.
4. Go to All-in-One WP Migration → Export and select Export to → File.
5. Download the completed export file to your computer.

You now have a copy of your WordPress website that can be transferred to Polar55.

To minimize downtime, we recommend setting up and testing your website at Polar55 before changing your domain's nameservers. You can do this using a temporary domain/subdomain or by using the hosts file method described in our guide below.

1. Install a new WordPress installation at Polar55.
2. Upload and activate the same migration plugin you downloaded above.
3. Open File Manager through our control panel or cPanel.
4. Locate the folder wp-content/ai1wm-backups/. For your primary domain, this will normally be inside public_html. For an addon domain, it will normally be inside the document root assigned to that domain.
5. Upload your exported website file to the ai1wm-backups folder.
6. Return to WordPress and go to All-in-One WP Migration → Backups.
7. Your uploaded backup should now appear in the list. Click Restore and wait for the migration to complete.
8. Check that your website works correctly at Polar55. If you have not changed your nameservers yet, you can use the hosts file method to preview the website from the new server.
9. Once you have confirmed that everything works, change your domain's nameservers to Polar55.
10. Important: Delete the migration plugin immediately after the migration is complete. The plugin used in this guide is intended only as a temporary migration tool and should not remain installed on your WordPress website.

Once the nameserver change has propagated, your WordPress website should load from your Polar55 web hosting account.

During the migration, you may need the following guides:

• Hosts file guide
• Change nameservers for a domain
• Install WordPress on Polar55