ok so i know you can so im asking for a little bit of support.
Purpose
This article explains in-depth how to move your forum from one hosting provider to another (different or same domain) or from one domain to another on the same host. These instructions are only intended to work with
MySQL databases.
Requirements- You will need FTP access to your server. You will also need an FTP client. The client which is used during the course of this article is FileZilla.
- It is highly recommended (although not required) that you have access to phpMyAdmin in order to make a backup of your database. Most hosting providers offer this application. It should be available in the databases section of your hosting control panel (cPanel, Plesk, etc). If you are unsure of how to access phpMyAdmin, you should contact your hosting provider for details.
- For larger databases (greater than 2MB exactly) you will likely be unable to restore the backed up database via phpMyAdmin. Because of this, you will need to use a program called BigDump to restore the database. BigDump can be obtained from here. Instructions will follow on the proper usage of BigDump. Alternatively, you can use SSH to restore the database (details below).
- You will need a basic text editor. For Windows: Notepad++. For OS X, use Text Edit. For GNU/Linux, use GEdit or KEdit depending on your desktop environment. You may also choose to use another text editor of your choice. Do not use a word processor such as Microsoft Word or program such as Adobe Dreamweaver.
- (Optional) If your hosting provider(s) offers SSH (Secure Shell) access to your server, this is the preferred method of backing up and restoring a database. Check with your hosting provider(s) for details. For Windows, you will need an SSH client such as PuTTY. For GNU/Linux and OS X, SSH is built directly into the Terminal.
Preparation
This step will prepare your board for the transfer.
Visit your old board’s Administration Control Panel. On the
General tab, select the
Server settings link on the left-hand side of the page. Ensure
Force server URL settings is set to
NO, as shown in the image below.
Select the
Board settings link on the left-hand side of the page. Ensure
Disable board is set to
YES.
Backup
Backing up the phpBB Files
Here, we will get a backup of your phpBB directory and database. Using FileZilla, connect to your old domain name. Browse to the location of your phpBB directory and copy its contents to a folder on your computer, as shown in the image below:
Ensure all files and folders have been properly transferred.
Backing Up the Database
Select one of the three options below to back up your database. Use whichever one is best based on your needs and what tools you have available to you.
1) Using phpMyAdmin to Back Up the Database
Load phpMyAdmin. Depending on how phpMyAdmin is set up on your server, the images shown below will be slightly different.
Select your forum’s database from the drop down box in the left-hand frame.
In the right-hand frame, select the
Export tab. In the
Export section of this page, be sure to choose
Select All as well as the
SQL radio button. In the
Options section of this page, ensure the
Add DROP TABLE checkbox is checked.
Below this setting in the Data section, ensure
Complete inserts is checked, and
Extended inserts is
unchecked.
At the bottom of the page, check the
Save as file box. Leave the file name as default and select
gzipped as the compression.
Click
Go and save the file to your computer. Proceed to the
Restore section.