Move a Managed WordPress site to an unmanaged WordPress account

To move a Managed WordPress site to an "unmanaged" WordPress site, you need to upload the site files and revise the site database for the new WordPress site. Exactly how you upload files depends on the type of hosting. Contact your site provider for more details.

1. Make a "dump file" of the SQL database for the Managed WordPress site and download the copy to your computer. For help, see Export MySQL databases.
2. Make a copy of the wp-content folder for the Managed WordPress site, and download that copy to your computer. For help, see FTP: Upload my files to cPanel hosting.
3. If the .htaccess file contains custom rules, make a copy of .htaccess and download it to your computer.
4. If you haven't done so already, install WordPress on the destination account.
5. Upload the wp-content folder to the new WordPress site (you will overwrite the existing folders).
6. "Drop the tables" of the database for the new WordPress site. For help, see Remove database tables.
7. Import the "dump file" you made into the database for the new WordPress site.
8. In the site directory, locate the /wp-content/mu-plugins/ directory, and delete the gd-system-plugin and gd-system-plugin.php files.
9. In the site directory, locate and open the wp-config.php file.
10. If the updated database uses a different table prefix than the default ("wp_"), in the wp-config.php file, look for "$table_prefix" and change its value to match the new table prefix.
    

    The sample code below from the wp-config.php shows the general location of "$table_prefix".

    * WordPress Database Table prefix.
*
* You can have multiple installations in one database if you give each a unique
* prefix. Only numbers, letters, and underscores please!
*/
$table_prefix = 'wp_';



11. Finally, in the wp-config.php file, find and remove the reference to gd-config.php. The sample code below from the wp-config.php file shows the general location of the line to delete.

    /**
* For developers: WordPress debugging mode.
*
* Change this to true to enable the display of notices during development.
* It is strongly recommended that plugin and theme developers use WP_DEBUG
* in their development environments.
*/
define('WP_DEBUG', false);
//define( 'WP_CACHE', true );
[DELETE THIS LINE] require_once( dirname( __FILE__ ) . '/gd-config.php' );
define( 'FS_METHOD', 'direct');


12. Save and close all open files, and then view the site to confirm that it's working as expected.

Next steps

• Log in to WordPress