Ok, so you just did a blog flip and it happened to be a WordPress blog that you sold (or bought). You’re feeling great but now you are wondering how to you export the database so the new owner can import it to their web host? Or maybe you said you will import it for them but aren’t exactly sure how? Or you may have just bought a blog and now you need to know how to import the WordPress database? No matter what situation you are in I am going to teach you how to do it in this post.
I know, first you had to learn all about flipping blogs and now you have to learn how to export and import WordPress databases. It’s torture, right?! Actually it’s not very difficult if you just follow the steps below.
For these steps I am assuming that your webhost is using cPanel. If not, I recommend you get HostGator because it’s amazing in so many ways!
Let’s start with the Export from your end…
1. Login to cPanel.
2. Find “phpMyAdmin” and click on it.
3. Select the WordPress database of the blog you want to export.
4. Click the “export” tab.
5. Under the “Structure” pane put a check next to “add DROP TABLE” and “add AUTO_INCREMENT value” and “Enclose table and field names with backquotes”
6. Find the “DATA” section and make sure the box next to it is checked. Leave the other sections as they are.
7. In the “Export” pane on the left side there is a box containing all the tables selected for backup. Make sure they are all selected. Also just be sure that the button next to “SQL” is ticked.
8. Mark “Save as file” and pick a compression type. I usually choose “zipped” but I am not sure it matters.
9. Click “Go” and wait. It’s usually pretty quick but might take a few minutes. You might also have to choose where to save it and your desktop will be the easiest to find it.
That’s all there is to it. Your database will be exported and ready to be imported into the new host. It might seem difficult when you are just reading the steps but once you are actually doing it you will find it to be easy.
Now, how to import the database into the new host…
1. Login to your cPanel.
2. Go into mySQL Wizard and create a new database.
3. Add a new user onto the new database with all privileges.
4. Go into phpMyAdmin and click the “import” tab to import the database export into the new database you created.
5. Open up the wp-config.php which is in the root directory.
6. Edit the database name, database user, and database password to reflect the new changes you have made.
7. The blog should be working fine after you switch the nameservers of the domain to point to the new webhost.
You can use this as a reference if you are exporting or importing a WordPress database for yourself or for someone you just sold a blog to. You could also just send the new owner here so they can learn how to do it themselves.
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