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Todos for migrating site - backups to make before I lose access

Posted on November 20, 2014

Hi all, I am migrating my hosting from another provider’s a shared-hosting plan to Digital Ocean. This is my first time doing such a thing.

Regarding all of the data on the previous host, I want to backup everything, including my email. I used cPanel before and have FTP access.

What are some necessary precautions, the obvious and the overlooked?

So far I’ve been in the previous host’s account pages to download tar files of:

  • cPanel
  • my home directory
  • mysql
  • something called ‘my website files’?

and a copy & pasted text of what appears to be my A, CNAME, MX, TXT, SRV, AAAA records

is there anything else I need to save before I lose access to my old hosting?

Thanks!



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I would recommend downloading a full backup which should include all files, databases, and emails just in case: Backup Wizard - Documentation - cPanel Documentation.

Copying the home directory, the MySQL data, and the DNS records is usually all you have to do.

Heya,

You can also use plugins for WordPress like Snapshooter to copy the data from one provider to another.

https://snapshooter.com/learn/guides/backup-restore-wordpress

https://snapshooter.com/docs/object-storage/recipies/wordpress/restore-different-location

https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/snapshooter/how-to/back-up-wordpress-servers/

You can also copy the files and database across manually and then test the site loading from DigitalOcean before switching the DNS to push the changes live.

Hope that this helps!

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