The entire wordpress theme reset to default after uploaded to live

Question

I created a Wordpress website. Spent a couple of weeks to customized its CSS, PHP, Posts, uploading images, etc to be the how I wanted. BUT when I uploaded it to the server, all of my settings I have created were lost and went to default itself.

The way I uploaded it:

1. uploaded .htacces to public_html
2. uploaded the wordpress directory contents to the same folder
3. exported the .sql database from local phpMyAdmin
4. replaced all localhost/mysite/wordpress and localhost:8012/mysite/wordpress to www.mysite.com (the port is specified because there was a problem with apache, so I had to configure it)
5. created a database in cpanel
6. created a user in cpanel
7. in phpMyAdmin on server imported the database

Does anyone know how to fix this?

Answer 1

Probably the problem is caused by 4. WordPress stores some data as serialized arrays. When you change the domains this data gets corrupted - read http://php.net/manual/en/function.serialize.php (Anatomy of a serialize()'ed value part will explain you everything).

How to resolve it? Use https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-migrate-db/

It will convert data correctly.

Answer 2

I use the WP Clone plugin to move data. Install it on the source and target sites. Backup on the source, then restore to the target. You'll need to re-login on the target site using the source admin user account.