This guide will show you how to migrate your PHP based website from Windows Server hosting with Plesk to cPanel
In this example we will be migrating a WordPress website, the process is the same for any other PHP based website although file names maybe different for database configuration.
Step 1. Login to Plesk and Once in Plesk click
File Manager:
Your Files will load
Click Select all at the top of the files
click Archive > add to archive
Give the file a name i.e Website Files
Click OK
It may take a few minutes to create the zip file depending on the number of files/images/videos that your website has.
Once finished you will see:
Download the zip file
1. locate websitefiles.zip
2. click the drop down menu
3. click download
once downloaded click your domain name at the top of file manager to go back to Plesk control Panel.
Step 2. Backup Databases on the right hand menu in Plesk click Databases
Under your database name click phpMyAdmin. Note, if you see multiple databases only export the ones you need to move to cPanel
In phpMyAdmin, click the database, from the top select Export. Then click Go
Save the file to your computer.
We have now downloaded the Website Files & the database and ready to migrate to the new hosting Plan.
Step 3. Login to cPanel
Select File Manager from Menu
Double click the
public_html directory
Upload the website files zip to the folder from the menu at the top bar
Once finished close the popup window
right click websitefiles.zip and click extract
The files would all be extracted here
Step 4. restoring the database
Go back to the other tab in your web browser for direct admin
go to account manager > MySQL Databases
Click create new database
Give the database a name, in my example i used wordpress
Create a corresponding database user (you can use the password generator-just remember to copy it down
Go back to the main menu and enter phpMyAdmin
Select the database and from top menu, select Import. Then browse to the database backup had taken from Plesk and click Go at the bottom of the screen
Next go back to the file manager tab
Find the file that contains your database configuration, if wordpress this is wp-config.php
right click the file and go to edit
Edit
1. DB Name
2. DB User
3. DB Password
4. DB Host (must be localhost)
5. Scroll down and find:
$table_prefix =
it will be prefixed with something random, for example:
$table_prefix = 'A5c9Mrf_';
change all of the text after = to lowercase letters, my example above would become:
$table_prefix = 'a5c9mrf_';
Click
SAVE
Next Click NEW > Text File > Other....
right click our new file .htaccess and click Edit
copy/paste the below text:
# BEGIN WordPress
RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule .* - [E=HTTP_AUTHORIZATION:%{HTTP:Authorization}]
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
# END WordPress
Then Click SAVE:
You have now successfully migrated your website.
Step 5. Go Live
Change your domain names name servers from the old Plesk hosting to the new hosting package, these can be found in your welcome email when you signed up.