Help! Moving site from self hosted server and can't find right file to upload
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Help!!! I had a wordpress self hosted site and a few days ago why my contract was up with InMotion hosting I decided to move back to WordPress.com but in the files they sent me the link to I can’t find the right one! I have tried importing numerous files but I keep getting an error saying it’s not the right file!
I also paid for a custom theme and I need to move that over too but nothing’s working.
Can someone help me please????!!!!
Thanks in advance for your help!
Maxine H
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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Hi there, the file you need to import to WordPressdotcom from your self-hosted site is the XML or WXR file.
WordPressdotcom has a guide here for bringing your self-hosted site over. https://en.support.wordpress.com/moving-from-self-hosted-wordpress-to-wordpress-com/view-all/
However, you won’t be able to import a custom theme to use here. WordPressdotcom users can use any of the 350+ free and premium themes found in the showcase or in our site dashboard.
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Hello there,
Thank you for the reply first of all, but I’ve been to that link, I’ve done the research to find the necessary info but it doesn’t work. The import gives me an error all the time saying it’s not the right file.I’m confused because I don’t know which file to get! The following are the only .xml files I have in the export files they gave me the link to:
/public_html/xmlrpc.php
/public_html/wp-content/plugins/jetpack/class.jetpack-xmlrpc-server.php
/public_html/wp-content/plugins/jetpack/wpml-config.xml
/public_html/wp-content/plugins/jetpack/modules/xml-sitemap
/public_html/wp-content/plugins/wordpress-seo/wpml-config.xml
/public_html/wp-content/plugins/wordpress-seo/admin/pages/xml-sitemaps.php
/public_html/wp-content/plugins/wordpress-seo/inc/options/class-wpseo-option-xml.php
/public_html/wp-content/plugins/wordpress-seo/css/xml-sitemap-xsl.php
/public_html/wp-includes/wlwmanifest.xml
/public_html/wp-includes/class-wp-xmlrpc-server.php
I’ve tried uploading them all and one of them work!
Really need to get this resolved as my site is completely empty without it.
Thank you again in advance,
Maxine
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Hello again, It looks to me that your host has sent you the entire directory of your site.
However, in order to generate the required dotXML or dotWXR file, you need to export your content (posts, pages, comments, etc.) using the Export tool in your old WordPress site, as it says in the above support document:
Export
In your old self-hosted WordPress.org site, go to Tools → Export and download the .xml (WXR) file to your computer.Here’s the enlarged screenshot
If your standalone WP site is no longer online, I’m not sure how you can proceed as you will also need it to be public in order to pull in your images correctly to your new WordPressdotcom site.
I’ve also tagged this for Staff input.
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Hi there,
You need to log into the WP-Admin dashboard of your self-hosted site and go to Tools ->Export as @justjennifer indicated to get the export file you need.
If your hosting account has already expired and you’re not able to access the WP-Admin dashboard, you’ll need to contact your old host and ask them if it’s possible to temporarily reactivate the site so you can have time to do this.
Ideally, that site needs stay online until you have finished importing the content here, otherwise none of your media files will import either. Only once the import completes on our side should you map your domain to us and cancel the site at the other host.
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Thank you both very much for all your help. As I couldn’t find the file and it was not included in the export package, I had to contact the hosting company and they very generously helped me retrieve the file.
The correct file has been uploaded and is being processed.
Have a wonderful day!
Maxine
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Yay! Very happy to hear that.
Again, in order for your media files to come across, your self-hosted site needs to be online at least temporarily.
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Not sure what you mean by “online”, justjennifer.
Of course I can no longer get into their back end but the guy at the help desk told me that the site will be available for a while, he didn’t say how long but I don’t think they’re going to wipe my files clean in the next 24hrs.
Is that what you mean?
Maxine
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Not sure what you mean by “online
What that means is that you must be able to view the old site in your browser. If you are no longer able to do that, media files might not be transferred, and we won’t be able to fix that.
So, please also make sure you have backups of all the images you had uploaded to your site. You may need to add them back manually if they haven’t imported by the time your old site is deleted at the host.
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Okay. I see what you mean, because in fact none of the images have imported and I’m going to have to add them all manually. Eeegads! I wish I had known to do the import before closing the other hosting account but alas, that’s part of the adventure of being online :).
Thank you both all the same!
Maxine
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Unfortunately there is nothing we can do about it at this stage, otherwise I would have :)
Let us know if you need help with anything else.
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