Migrate a site from Ionos using SSH

This guide will show you how to securely share access to your site using SSH, so that you can migrate your site from Ionos to WordPress.com.

Secure Shell (SSH) is a secure way for us to connect to your current host and copy your site safely. We use it to transfer a copy of your site’s content, media, plugins, themes, and database over an encrypted connection. Your existing site will stay online and unchanged during the migration, so visitors won’t notice any disruption until you’re ready to update your domain name to the newly-migrated site.

To find the SSH details for your site, take the following steps:

1. Log into your IONOS account and select your website.
2. Under Settings, locate the SFTP & SSH option under the advanced settings:

3. If you don’t have any SSH accounts, create one ensuring that you have SFTP + SSH selected:

3. Click on the user name to display your SSH details:

4. Copy the Server/Host name from your account, as shown in this example:

5. Paste it as your server address on WordPress.com:

6. Enter 22 in the Port box, unless a different number is provided by Ionos.
7. Click the “Verify server address” button.

In a few moments, we’ll validate if the details are correct for what we need to migrate a copy of your site to WordPress.com. If the details cannot be validated, please double check you have pasted the correct information or contact your host for support in obtaining the correct details.

Next, you’ll need to share your SSH details to grant WordPress.com secure access to your site to begin the migration. There are two methods for doing so:

1. Return to where you left off in your Ionos site’s SSH details:

2. Copy your user name and paste it into the SSH username field on WordPress.com.
3. Enter your SSH user password into the SSH password field on WordPress.com. If you don’t know this password, you can use the “forgot your password?” option to create a new one.
4. Click Continue on WordPress.com:

1. In the “Share SSH access” section on WordPress.com, choose the SSH key authentication method.
2. Click the copy icon in the top right to copy the public key to your computer’s clipboard:

3. Visit your Cloud Panel on Ionos.
4. Navigate to Security → SSH Keys.
5. Click the “Create” button and enter a name like “WordPress.com Migration” for example.
6. Select the option to import an existing public key and paste the exact key you copied from WordPress.com.
7. Click the Add button to install the key.
8. Once the key has been installed, return to WordPress.com and click the Continue button.