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FTP and Host Control Panel for move to WP.org?

  1. unshodashish
    Member

    I'd like to move my website to a WP.org site to be hosted by HostGator. To enable HostGator to move my WP.com files for me, I need to provide them my WP.com FTP username/password, as well as "Host Control Panel" URL, username, and password.

    Where do I find the necessary URLs, etc. for my WP.com-hosted website?

    I have read in a few places that WP.com does not provide FTP access. In that case, how do we (ourselves, or in my case through HostGator) move the website? I know I'm not the first to do this.

    Thanks.

    The blog I need help with is runbarefootrunhealthy.com.

  2. timethief
    Member

    To enable HostGator to move my WP.com files for me

    You can export your blog content out of your free hosted WordPress.com blog into a file on your desktop. Then you can import it into your WordPress.org install. See here for export/import of your links which is done separately. All content in text widgets must be copied and pasted as it cannot be exported.

  3. unshodashish
    Member

    Thanks, TT - very helpful.

    Interesting about the links - bummer about the text widget. :-(

  4. timethief
    Member

    It takes only minutes to copy and paste text widget content. I've done it myself. Also be aware that the in-house widgets for WordPress.com users are not included in WordPress.org installs. If you need more help then read this > Setting up a self-hosted WordPress.org install

  5. unshodashish
    Member

    So I read your links, and with much trepidation I created my WordPress.org account, exported my WordPress.com XML file, and imported it onto my new host. Thank you for your help.

    On the plus side:
    - All the text content seems to have made it across - pages as well as posts.

    On the minus side:
    1) Comments generated an error messages and did not make it.
    2) Images and PDFs - uploaded content - did not make it. (The WP.com Export function does not offer the option of adding uploaded content.)
    3) The menu structure did not survive - so now I see 20 or so pages with a flat structure.

    My site is still relatively small, so I can rebuild the structure and re-upload all the images by hand, but if there is some automagic way, I'd much prefer that. (I can't imagine rebuilding a large site by hand!)

    Thanks for any pointers.

  6. thesacredpath
    Member

    During import, you are asked if you want the importer to bring over your media files - or at least it has been that way for several years. The existing site has to exist though so that wordpress can retrieve the images from that site, and it cannot be set to private.

    On the comments, you can go back to the exporter and tell it to export "feedbacks" and that should export the comments and then when you import them, it should put them in the proper places.

  7. unshodashish
    Member

    It's strange - the Feedback (comments) generate errors that look like this:
    Failed to import “Mindy - 2011-10-11 19:21:35”: Invalid post type feedback

    The media files did come over - you're right - I was just confused by the total lack of structure on the WP.org side.

    Any thoughts on how I can recapture the structure I'd built on WP.com? Even the blog structure is non-existent - I have only a "Blog" header - though the individual posts have come over, thank goodness.

  8. thesacredpath
    Member

    The media files should have been brought over and into their respective year/month subdirectories.

    When you say "structure" what exactly are you meaning?

  9. unshodashish
    Member

    When I click on "Posts" in my WP.org dashboard, I see my posts, each with its associated date. I can click on a post and see it. So that's good.

    And you know what? The posts are all there, one under another, as they should be. So it's actually better than I thought.

    But when I click on the "Blog" header, it's empty. No Posts under Blog. So I need to associate the Posts with the Blog header. And in fact, the menu structure (for Pages as well as Posts) is completely dissolved - flat. So I need to either figure out how to import that, or rebuild it.

  10. thesacredpath
    Member

    You have to go to settings > reading and set "blog" as your posts page and also assign a static front page for your site.

  11. thesacredpath
    Member

    The menu will not be imported. You will have to create a custom menu, if the theme you are using supports custom menus. Sadly too few have been updated to include support for custom menus.

  12. unshodashish
    Member

    Thank you so much!

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