You need two things: all the files and the database. Snagging the files is easy, if you don't already have them: just FTP everything down to your PC. Snagging the database is also easy IF you have phpmyadmin from your old host. If so, the path is pretty simple: select phpmyadmin, select the database, click on 'export', select all fields, check the 'save as file' box, and then click go. It'll save the entire table to your computer. Once you move you just have to reverse the process. Upload all your files, create a database for b2evolution, and upload the saved table info to that database.

If you don't have phpmyadmin with your old host you need to get with them to find out what you can use to backup a database. I'm sure there are other ways to do it.

I've never done this by the way. When I backup my database I'm assuming that if need be I'll be able to restore from it. The export feature allows multiple file formats. I do it as a database (.sql) because I think that's probably the best format for restoring from. I, of course, could be wrong.

Thanks,
but it still dosen't work, when you press on links it go's to the page on the old host.

That's not a function of b2evolution or your host. Links go to where domain name servers tell them to go, or potentially to a cached version of the page.

Officially speaking they say it takes 24 to 48 hours for a name server change to propagate through the internet, but unofficially I had a case where it didn't appear to be done for 4 days. I could see different versions of the page on the same PC at different times of the third day in the process. I also had a case with a less-than-stellar host where it never got finished. Naturally, both parties involved (network solutions and the long-gone-host) said it wasn't their problem.

Assuming you've moved your files and tables and have initiated a name server change then all will eventually be well. Or maybe not, but there is nothing in b2evolution that can affect this.

Assuming DNS has propagated and you changed domain names:

line 62 in conf/_config.php:

$baseurl = 'http://www.your-old-domain-name.com';		// IMPORTANT: NO ENDING SLASH !!!

change to:

$baseurl = 'http://www.your-NEW-domain-name.com';		// IMPORTANT: NO ENDING SLASH !!!

Thanks a lot! :D

EdB wrote:

You need two things: all the files and the database. Snagging the files is easy, if you don't already have them: just FTP everything down to your PC. Snagging the database is also easy IF you have phpmyadmin from your old host. If so, the path is pretty simple: select phpmyadmin, select the database, click on 'export', select all fields, check the 'save as file' box, and then click go. It'll save the entire table to your computer. Once you move you just have to reverse the process. Upload all your files, create a database for b2evolution, and upload the saved table info to that database.

How can I do that? import the database?

Ya know it's funny. I just went through this and figured out what I thought would work wouldn't.

Here's what worked for me: never mind exporting because all you do is get a file that has no value later on. At your cpanel page, assuming your host has cpanel, use the "backup" feature and simply click the database name you want to save. It'll do it as a .gz file. Next host you use the same utility to tell it to restore and browse to the happy file.

I did not try exporting as a .gz, but for sure there's no way to import from inside phpmyadmin. Well, no way that I could see...

I make a backup in my cpanel to a gz-zipped file.
I open that file with wordpad (not notepad)
In 12 times I do a copy of the line in that (so 1 per table)
I paste that in the sql-part of the phpmyadmin section
...

(this explanation is stricktly for people who knows what there are doing, because my englisch is not enough to write it for *noops*

Hey Topanga, I certainly I'm in the category "not know what they are doing"... but if you could please clarify your post a bit?

"In 12 times I do a copy of the line in that (so 1 per table)
I paste that in the sql-part of the phpmyadmin section" -- I've been trying to figure what this means for a while now, but couldn't.

What I am trying to do is what the first poster wanted, to move the entire blog from one web hosting service to a another. So far, I have not succeeded, I tried the full backup, tried the database saving, etc. The one method that I haven't tried yet is the database backup-restore, and then ftp the files manually.

Thanks!

Hello guys... I am still trying to move my b2evo installation to a new server, and I'm mildly desperate because I am running out of time on the old server.

I followed the advice given on this thread to the T, and still the new b2evo site won't work. I did a backup of the database using the "backup" feature of CPanel (the phpMyAdmin would export, but then there is no import feature, so I followed Edb on this and used the backup function to backup the database).

The database is now correctly installed, and I have uploaded all b2evo files to the new server. I have also changed _config.php to all the new settings, new db username, new database name, new base url. But it does not work.

This is the error I get:

MySQL error!

Table 'dunhill_b2e.evo_settings' doesn't exist(Errno=1146)

Your query:
SELECT * FROM evo_settings

So it seems it is not "seeing" the database, which is very much there, as I see it in Cpanel, and the username is correct too, and has all the necessary privileges.

How can I make b2evo use the database that's installed in the new server?

Would it be easier install a brand new copy of b2evo and instruct the installation to use the existing database I restored to the new site?

I would really appreciate your help, I really need to move my blog to a new server.

Thank you.

Try uploading the install folder again, and treat it like an upgrade. It worked for me. ;D

I moved my blog a couple months ago, this is basically what I did:

- Backed up old database (using the Backup feature of Cpanel)
- Installed B2evo on my new host (clean install)
- Uploaded my old database
- Changed the base url (which someone describes a couple posts up)

Then I just copy and pasted some skins over and stuff...

A bit of an aside...

To do an "import" in phpmyadmin, or other, take the exported SQL file from the old installation, and run that SQL file on the new installation, either from the command line, or within phpMyAdmin, before adding any tables or data to the new database.

In phpMyAdmin, click on database, the new database name, and then the SQL tab. You can copy and paste the entire contents of the exported SQL file, or use the "Location of the textfile" feature to bowse to the exported SQL file.

If there is a "create database" statement in the SQL file, remove it, as you have already created the new database using phpMyAdmin.

If you have already used b2evo installer to create the tables in the new database, then delete all of the create table statements.

The exported SQL file is a script, written in Structured Query Language, that contains all of the commands and data required to restore your old database.

To address the current issue, did you install b2evo using the correct new database name? Does b2evo know that the install is done? Are all the files in the conf subdirectory corrected with the new information for your new location?

THANK YOU guys for all the suggestions... I've spent a few hours trying out the different strategies, and NONE worked. :'(

I've tried restoring a complete backup of the entire b2evo in the new server, it didn't work.

I've tried installing clean and then uploading the old database, then changing the config file -- it cannot read from it.

I've tried using the "upgrade" option many times, but it tells me this:

Upgrading data in existing b2evolution database
Checking DB schema version...

MySQL error!

Table 'dunhill_b2e.evo_settings' doesn't exist(Errno=1146)

Your query:
SELECT * FROM evo_settings LIMIT 1

It keeps asking me if I am sure the db server is running (which it is), if the database exists (yes it does, definitely), if the user exists for that db and if the password is right, yes to all. Still, it cannot read the darn database.

I've tried with the 9.05. version of b2Evo (which is the version that generated the old database I'm trying to use) but also tried with the newest version of b2evo, and see if it would "upgrade", all to no avail.

The most common error message I get is that one where the "dunhill_b2.evo_settings" doesn't exist (Errno=1146). How could they not exist if it is a backup from a production database that is working?

Thanks again everybody for your help, I appreciate it.

Ok, just an update.

I tried with two different versions of b2evo, to get the program to recognize and use my previous database, which I upload from a backup I have.

When I try to do it as an "upgrade" (all the correct settings in the _config.php file, pointing to the uploaded old database that I want to use) I get the dreaded "Table 'dunhill_b2e.evo_settings' doesn't exist(Errno=1146)" error.

If I try to make it a new installation using the old database, I get this error: "MySQL error! Table 'evo_groups' already exists(Errno=1050)".

Also, I tried doing the phpMyAdmin export of the database, tried several times but the database is so big that my computer freezes when I try to copy the enormous text file, so I could not paste the database by the method suggested above by JosephDP.

I don't know if this has been suggested before, but I think a feature to import and export a database should be a part of b2evo... it seems that there is no proven method of doing this, just look at the diverging answers on this thread.

If you're trying to upgrade... well, I don't remember exactly what errors I got when I upgraded, but I ended up going through my database and deleting a bunch of tables.... XD

Don't forget to back up everything before poking at that stuff though. Sorry i can't be more detailed, as I did this some ago and don't really remember.

So, I've just moved by b2evolution blog from one host to another... and it worked pretty damn smoothly. Here's what I did (I would post the directions here but I can't post in HTML and don't want to translate it to BBCode, yuk):

http://josephhall.org/nqb2/index.php/2005/06/05/moving_b2evo

I basically found that phpMyAdmin was a good export tool but a piss-poor import tool... that's better done at the command line. I also include basic Apache Redirect Directive instructions to send people to your new blog. If you have any questions about this or need clarifications, etc. please don't hesitate to ask...

Uhhhh. I've only moved once, and all I had to do was do a clean install of b2evo, load the database (and overwrite the new one with my old one) and copy and paste over skins and such.

Umm, I did what Orianan did [I couldn't do the syncing that Joe mentioned because I terminated the old host before I got this new one] and what happened was that I managed to get my old data back on the blogs, but I've lost position as the administrator. At the login page, my usual login name was in with the password slot filled, which I found funny seeing that I DID do a new instal. Any ideas?

<Update>
Silly me again... after digging around the forums and test-tweaking myPHPadmin and mySQL I managed to get it going. Thank goodness for a thing called 'a forum'!