Finally, I have changed domains successfully 🙂 Instead of keeping that post, I will issue this one to replace the prior post…(sorry)…and hopefully I can pick up where I left. I couldn’t have done it without my host’s (DownTownHost) support, so my thanks to Jorge & Diego for all the help issued. Guys, finding a good webhost is really important!
So after 2 days, I managed to get my feed working properly. It was not straight forward to change domains with WordPress since any change to the database cannot be undone (unless you had a backup). So basically what happened (in order of events)…
- Backed up everything, including the mysql databases.
- Deleted old domain and replaced with new domain but forgot to deactivate the plugins before changing.
- Downloaded a copy of the database, opened it up and replaced everything denoting the old site name with the new site name using notepad.
- Dropped the current database in phpMyAdmin, and imported the database with new domain entries
- Site was working except the feed. I was using Steve Smith’s FeedBurner plugin which redirects all my feeds to FeedBurner and because I didnt deactivate the plugin, it’s settings were still in the database. So even though I replaced the old domain references in there with the new domain, it just kept directing to a now (non existing) 404 page.
- So now I figured I had to revert to the old domain temporarily, and after dropping the current database, using phpMyAdmin…I reimported back the old database, logged into my WordPress and deactivated all the plugins. Backed up this database again, logged out and changed back to new domain.
- Using notepad, repeated step 3…reimported database back and now things are working again…(including the feed).
So having to go through a lot of of mucking around, here’s the finer point :
- Make sure to get a dependable hosting as you will need a host whose support is always there instead of one that might be dirt cheap but never around when you need help. I cannot stress this point enough! Imagine a host who is only around at certain times of the week…..(now that is frustration).
Finally, I chose this domain name because I feel it’s a better blog name and probably has more brandability as well as indexed in G… (taking a leaf out of my own book, I guess) 🙂