migrating my self-hosted WP site to WP.com
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Hi,
I moved my site to Bluehost 3 years ago and now realise I’m not really going to use WooCommerce, I don’t have the expertise/time to keep up all security & maintainence on my site, and I’m super-tired of trying to get effective support from Bluehost chat.
So I’m looking at moving back to WP.com.
I paid Bluehost to migrate my site 3 years ago. I have read https://en.support.wordpress.com/moving-from-self-hosted-wordpress-to-wordpress-com and it all makes sense.
I’m getting a bit stuck when choosing a plan because I’m not clear on how much storage space I need, how many extra plugins I have been using, whether I have made any changes to my theme (or other changes) while my site was self-hosted, and so on.
I guess I could just migrate my site and see if it works?
Or the other extreme, I could buy a business plan for a couple of months, migrate my site, and then find out what plan I can downgrade to?
Does WP.com have a paid service to help me work these things out?
I think I’m really just so worn out from navigating recent problems on my self-hosted site (learning how to remove malware, other issues that Bluehost doesn’t seem to be able to help me solve) that I am feeling overwhelmed by the idea of making a detailed comparison of my current site and my previous WP.com site to find out what I have changed or added in the last 3 years! Even reading lovely clear WP.com support pages is feeling overwhelming at this stage.
Any advice/suggestions/pointers would be welcome!
My original site: textiletrails.wordpress.com (free domain with plan, but I don’t remember what that plan is, probably extra fonts. Not sure if it entitles me to chat support, can’t see a chat link anywhere today)
My self-hosted (currently broken) site: textiletrails.com.au. Menus & internal links mostly broken, but search function shows all content is still there. Jetpack is not connecting properly so I’m waiting to hear back from Jetpack support on that.
I do have a backup of my self-hosted site that I made before removing malware. I have since used Kaspersky to scan that backup file and remove malware & disinfect. So I am hopeful that I have a working backup made before the latest problems with my site.
Many thanks,
Wendy
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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Hi Wendy,
I’m getting a bit stuck when choosing a plan because I’m not clear on how much storage space I need, how many extra plugins I have been using, whether I have made any changes to my theme (or other changes) while my site was self-hosted, and so on.
You can start with the Personal plan and upgrade to a “bigger” plan later if needed by only paying for the difference in price.
Or the other extreme, I could buy a business plan for a couple of months, migrate my site, and then find out what plan I can downgrade to?
If you upgrade to the Business plan you can keep it for a full year (as you’ll have to pay for a year in advance). It’ll make sense to downgrade to another plan in the first 30 days as we have a 30-day refund window (downgrade and get a partial refund).
Also, if you currently using plugins and third-party themes your only option is the Business plan as it’s the only plan that allows the installation of both plugins and themes.
Does WP.com have a paid service to help me work these things out?
When you purchase any of our plans you’ll have immediate access to our live chat support and we can help you step-by-step in moving and setting up your site.
If you have any other questions, just let me know and I’ll be happy to help.
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Thanks fstat, this is very clear and helpful (as I knew any reply from WP.com people would be!) Happy camper here :-)
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Another related query:
Because my self-hosted site is not working properly at the moment, but my old WP.com site is working fine, I’m hesitant to completely replace the old WP.com site with the self-hosted site files in case I end up with two broken sites.
Perhaps I can import my self-hosted site to a different WP.com site just for safety? And then once I verify that all is working, point my domain to it?
Or perhaps it is better to just make a back up of the WP.com site, then import the self-hosted site files.
I’m thinking about what URL will be displayed to users who view my site once I have my textiletrails.com.au domain pointing to textiletrails.wordpress.com (or a new site ?????.wordpress.com).
Perhaps on any paid plan, my custom domain is the only one users will see, so it doesn’t matter which way I approach this?
Any suggestions?
Thanks,
Wendy
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I suggest creating a new WordPress.com site and import your content there. When using a custom domain (such as textiletrails.com.au), the .wordpress.com address will be hidden and only your custom domain will be visible.
Also, you can make your site private while working on it so no one but you can view it ;)
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