When checking this blog today, I was greeted by a message stating that WordPress could not connect to the database. It took a while to figure out what had happened. At first I thought that it was due to server maintenance that was done by our web host on Feb 27. I am now convinced that it was a fault of my own that caused the problem. When I first installed WordPress on the website, it would not work properly because the server was not equiped with the necessasary version of php. Upon querring our web host, I was informed that the needed version of php was not available on the old server and that it would not be upgraded. I would have to migrate the site to one of their new servers. OK ……………….. Our web host set me up with a brand new web space with a new control panel. It was just blank space, I had to move the website myself. To do so, everything had to be downloaded from the old server to my computer and then uploaded to the new server. Here are some excerpts from an email sent by our web host:
Dear Terry,
Your account has been created on a different control panel and the “Manage” button inside your control panel will now log into the new account.
The account is blank, no domains, no mailboxes, no databases, but gives you access to the new features you requested.
You will have to re-upload everything from the backup you made earlier.
In case you forgot to backup some of the data we preserved it for you on the old server for two weeks. You can access your old mailboxes and domains via the old IPs. Even your old FTP information is still active.
Please note that all services will have new IP Addresses. That is particularly important for databases, as you will have to adjust database access configuration (in case you are using any scripts that require databases).
After reuploading all the content please change the nameservers of your domains as a last step.
The old account will be deleted after two weeks. If you do not change the nameserver settings of your domain name by then, your websites will become inaccessible until the nameservers are updated.
OK ….. downloaded, reuploaded, changed nameservers, set up a new data base for wordpress and did a restore from the backup, etc, etc. Did it all, and everything seemed to be up and running. But I forgot one thing. In the WordPress settings, I forgot to change the database host name.
WordPress did not know to use the new database. Everything new that I did with the blog was saved in the old database on the old server. When my account was wiped off of the old server, I lost all of the new work that had been done on the blog since the site was moved. All photos, posts, links, installed widgets and plugins, etc. Now I’m having to start all over! Once I get things back to where I want them, I’ll be sure to occasionally make a new MySQL data base backup. Oh well, live and learn.