Lost Everything

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  exquisiteterror · Member · Oct 4, 2024 at 10:12 pm

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  As the title: I’ve lost my entire post history.

  I changed host. Before I did this, I obviously downloaded a site backup. It initially seemed to migrate okay, once I’d updated PHP version. Thought all okay.

  Later on, it stopped loading and came up with a database connection error. I updated my wp-config.php file with the new host’s details. This resulted in a ‘famous five-minute WordPress installation’ page asking me to log on. Weird. I don’t remember this the last time I changed hosts. I entered my details and the site is now completely blank, all posts gone. It does however have the plug-ins and themes still present. So it’s not like I somehow created a different profile.

  Looking at the backup, I can see all my uploads in there, so the content hasn’t inadvertently been deleted. It’s there. Just doing the WP installation removed everything.

  I’ve deleted everything from the database and am uploading my backup again to see if that makes a difference. I can clearly see all the content being transferred in the FTP, but I’m not feeling hopeful as I think the issue occurred with me doing the ‘five-minute install’, not my database. So if this doesn’t work, is there another way to install my full backup?

  Help much appreciated. We’re talking YEARS of work here.

  The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)

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  exquisiteterror · Member · Oct 4, 2024 at 10:39 pm

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  No, uploading my site backup again hasn’t worked. I can see all my old post files in the FTP window, but as far as logging into WordPress dashboard goes, nothing exists.

  Apparently I need a WordPress eXtended RSS (WXR) file to import via the dashboard. I never downloaded this. I downloaded the entire site backup from my control panel.

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  exquisiteterror · Member · Oct 5, 2024 at 1:10 am

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  These screenshots are from the WordPress site. My posts and pages it knows I’ve done, but it still thinks I haven’t created any content yet. What on earth has happened?

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  mgozdis · Staff · Oct 5, 2024 at 2:39 pm

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  Hi there! This support forum is primarily for sites hosted on WordPress.com. It looks like your site is currently hosted with OVH: https://wordpress.com/site-profiler/exquisiteterror.com
  
  If you were presented with an installation page and not seeing your expected content after migrating your site to OVH, it sounds like you have the incorrect $table_prefix specified in your wp-config.php file. You’d need to ensure the prefix matches the prefix for where your data is actually stored. It may be set to a default prefix of wp_ when it should be something else.
  
  If you aren’t familiar with how to check this in phpMyAdmin or MySQL via SSH, you’ll want to reach out to OVH’s support for assistance. We can also migrate the site for free to WordPress.com if interested.
  
  Hope this helps!