The issue of redirecting my site to a new domain

Question

I have encountered some problems after I have redirected my site, which is in a sub directory in my server, to a new domain. I have kept the same server.

The origin URL of my wp site http://www.example.com/mywpblog, has been redirected to another new domain http://www.example.com.

Please help me solve the following :

1. The original title of my WordPress page disappeared. My new domain name is the title which appeared in the title bar. I couldn't find it to edit while the origin is still there in the header.php.

   Q: How can I return my new title?

2. Meta links don't work properly. For example, I try to open the "register" link (http://example.com/mywpblog/wp-login.php?action=register) and get a page with the following message: "the content cannot be displayed".

   Q: I assume there is some conflict with links so may be I should to edit these links on the sidebar.php?

3. My post page's real link doesn't appear when I open I a post, just the http://newexample.com which keeps appearing in the address bar. I can't see the complete permalink.

Answer 1

There is a search and replace plugin I have used that works pretty good. http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/search-and-replace/

In the future I would not hard code any links in if you can help it as well. Use dynamic linking like:

$url = site_url('/secrets/');
echo $url;

or:

img src="<?php echo get_stylesheet_directory_uri() ?>/images/aternus.png" alt="" title="" width="" height="" />

as an example.

Answer 2

When you change a WordPress URL, even if it is on the same server or up or down a directory, you must make several changes in the database to make sure things will work. All three of your issues are symptoms of not having the correct URLs in the database.

While you could start over and use one of the plugins mentioned to assist with the move, I don't think that is necessary. Instead, if you have access to your database simple run the following MySQL queries:

UPDATE wp_options SET option_value = replace(option_value, 'http://www.example.com/mywpblog', 'http://newexample.com') WHERE option_name = 'home' OR option_name = 'siteurl';

UPDATE wp_posts SET guid = replace(guid, 'http://www.example.com/mywpblog','http://newexample.com');

UPDATE wp_posts SET post_content = replace(post_content, 'http://www.example.com/mywpblog', 'http://newexample.com');

UPDATE wp_postmeta SET meta_value = replace(meta_value, 'http://www.example.com/mywpblog', 'http://newexample.com');

These four queries will update links and options and should eliminate most of your problems. You may have to change your permalinks back to default and then back to your preferred setting to regenerate them properly but otherwise the above should fix things.

Answer 3

Unfortunately you can't just move a WordPress install to a new domain (or even a different directory) without doing a few things first. There are manual ways to do it (Google "move wordpress install"), but it's much easier using a plugin. I've had great success with Duplicator (don't let the name fool you, it works great for migrating and backup, too) and WordPress Move worked good for me as well.

If you can still access your WordPress install from the old domain, install and run one of those plugins and save yourself time and headache.

EDIT

For your circumstances, I'd recommend the WordPress Move plugin. Duplicator will only restore to a blank directory, and will overwrite the database, which may or may not be desirable for you.