When WordPress is installed, it will only work correctly within the folder that the program was installed in.  In order to move WordPress to a different folder within your account, a few modifications to the coding is required.  For example, you may need to do this if originally you installed WordPress on yourdomain.com, but later decide that you want the WordPress site in yourdomain.com/blog.

How to I move my WordPress site to a different folder?

Moving your WordPress website to a new folder is easy!  There are different methods to complete this task, however this is the way that we recommend:

1. First, log into your cPanel and access your File Manager.
2. Next, navigate to the folder that currently has your WordPress files.
3. Now we will copy all the files. (Not Cut. Until the site is working in the new folder we do not want to remove it from the old folder).  To copy the files, click the Select all button at the top of the page.  Once all the files and folders are selected, click on Copy in the File Manager menu bar.
4. A new window appears where you will instruct File Manger where to copy your files to.  In the filed provided, type in the new folder that you want your WordPress website moved to and click Copy File(s).
5. This may take a minute or two, depending on the size of your website, so do not be alarmed if nothing appears to happen for several minutes.
6. Once it is done, navigate to the folder that you moved your WordPress website to and confirm that the files were copied.
7. Scroll down to the file called wp-config.php, right click on the file and select Code Edit.

Now that you have opened the wp-config file, you will just need to add two lines of code to let the WordPress software know the new location of the website.  In your wp-config file you will see coding that looks similar to this:

/** MySQL hostname */
define(‘DB_HOST’, ‘localhost’);

/** Database Charset to use in creating database tables. */
define(‘DB_CHARSET’, ‘utf8’);

/** The Database Collate type. Don’t change this if in doubt.
*/ define(‘DB_COLLATE’, ”);

After the coding that looks like the example above, you are going to enter in two lines of code:

define(‘WP_HOME’,’http://example.com/newlocation’);
define(‘WP_SITEURL’,’http://example.com/newlocation’);

Make sure that you keep the formatting exactly the same, and replace example.com/newlocation with the folder that you moved your WordPress website too.  Once you have added the two lines of code, click the Save Changes button at the top of the page.

You can navigate to the new location in your web browser and make sure that it worked.  If it does not appear, then make sure that the added code is correct as the exact syntax and capitalization must be used for it to work properly. Once you have thoroughly tested your site and verified that all files and folders were moved correctly, you can then delete the files and folders in the original folder where WordPress was installed (where you copied from in Step 3 above).

Please note, if you installed WordPress through Fantastico de Luxe, moving your WordPress installation as outlined above will NOT update the Fantastico data file that keeps track of software installations. This will not affect most users, but do keep in mind that if you ever decide to switch to a different software for your site, removal of the WordPress files through Fantastico will not work as expected.