Yes, I ran into troubled water yet again. My webmaster decided to shift my server to a new one, and hence had to go through the process of backing up my blogs, and getting them up again from scratch. It is indeed a pain, at least it was for me. I made a whole list of blunders and I screwed up badly. The result, my blog went offline for a whole 3 days. How frustrating it is to find your blog’s main page set to a white background displaying “Error in establishing database connection”. So this is what you should actually do when you backup your WordPress, and get ready for setting your blog on a new server.

Things to remember:

Have your wp-content folder in wordpress backed up , including your uploads, images, plugins and themes. I forgot to do it, and my last minute panic was a definite qualifier for the YouTube humor Video Awards. If you DON’t do this, what you’ll end up seeing is your lovely blog set to the default WordPress Classic theme. Trust me, it HURTS.

(I am not mentioning the other details involved with shifting of the DNS or namespaces etc. My assumption is, that you have your URL ready and directed to the server where you are about to setup your already existing blog.)

So, here we go. First, as mentioned in my previous post, have your backup database ready. Ensure that it has been properly downloaded and that the file isn’t corrupt. Try opening the SQL file in a text editor like Notepad or Wordpad and you should be able to read the contents. The SQL contains your DB Name. Remember this is the DB name which you are gonna use.Fine, so we have the server ready. Upload your WordPress folder to your desired directory. (This process includes changing the name of your config.php filename to wp-config.php and also mentioning the Username/Password used to access the DB, as well as the DB name mentioned in the SQL) Now go to your CPanel and go to MySQL Databases. You should find it under the Databases tab. Now create the Database with the exact name as mentioned in your SQL File. Create the user ID with the name mentioned in your config.php file and give it the same password.
P.S. Don’t forget to associate the user to the given DB , or else the “Error in establishing DB connection” error message will keep haunting you. (Experience speaks.)
So, Username/Password set and the DB is created. Next up is phpMyAdmin.
Go to phpMyAdmin and hit on the Import link. Browse to select your backup SQL file and hit Go.
Have patience and wait for the process to be successfully completed. Once this is done. Your blog is almost ready to hit the road.
Try hitting your URL now and you should be able to see your website in the classic wordpress template(which everyone hates).

Now it’s time to upload your uploads, themes, plugins and images if any to the wp-content folder. Have some more patience and give some time for the changes to start showing. Especially if the uploaded themes aren’t showing, try logging out from the FTP browser and your wordpress admin console and logging in again.

With all of that done properly, I think your blog should be back in the Game in no time.
Some kicks for my technical ignorance would be welcome.
P.S. I forgot to backup my logos in the FIND ME HERE section. Am trying to make it all up again.

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