It happens to almost everyone sooner or later – the decision to switch web hosting providers. When changing from one hosting provider to another the last thing you want is for your websites to experience downtime. Regardless of how or when your move takes place, one thing should remain crucial – to have your website up and running smoothly on your new host before cancelling the old one. Once you’ve finished researching and choosing a new provider, you’ll have two options. The first is to simply ask your new web hosting provider to take care of the entire process fro you. Many web hosts will do this for you free of charge if the hosting accounts are both using cPanel. However, to go that route you will need to plan on handing over your cPanel username and password and the process could take a few days. The second option is to simply do the move yourself. The task sounds stressful but really isn’t, especially to those using cPanel. In fact, the good developers at cPanel have already thought of this before and have taken steps to make it easy for users to do. The one thing to remember when using this method is that both hosting providers need to use cPanel.
Listed below are the simple steps you can follow the change from one cPanel hosting provider to another. Follow them closely and you can switch providers anytime in the future!
Full cPanel Backup Creation
The first step is to create and export a full backup from your current web host. We’ll then take that exported file and import it at your new host.
1. Login to your cPanel account and click the “Backup” icon located under the “Files” section.
2. Next, click the button which says “Download a Full Website Backup”
3. On the following page, click the “Generate Backup” button. By default, this will create a full cPanel backup into your websites home directory. You can also choose to have it send you an email notification once the backup has been created.
4. You should now see a screen which tells you the full backup is in progress. Keep an eye out for the email notification once it’s finished.
Backups Available for Download
backup-backup-date_time_cpaneluser.tar.gz (Fri May 10 20:53:36 2019)
Once your backup is complete the file will be downloadable from the “Backup” section also located under “Files” in the main cPanel page. It should look like the example above and clicking on the file will prompt you to download it. Once downloaded, the next step is to go and update the DNS settings of your domain name.
Waiting for DNS Changes to Take Effect
After going to your domain registrar and updating the nameservers on your domain, it can take up to 48 hours for those changes to take full effect. Before closing down your old hosting account, you need to make sure your new website is imported into your new hosting provider and content is being pulled from it properly. Continue reading to learn about importing your website and checking that content is being pulled properly.
Importing the Website Backup File
At this point you’ve created a full website backup and updated your nameservers so they point to your new hosting provider. Next, you will need to import the backup file you downloaded into your new host. Log back into cPanel and visit the “Files” section under “Backup.” From here, click the “Choose File” button under the “Restore a Home Directory Backup” and select the backup file you downloaded. Click the “Upload” button and then wait patiently. You should receive confirmation your backup has been successfully imported. That’s it – you’ve now successfully created a cPanel website backup and moved it over to your new cPanel hosting provider! Nameservers have been updated so the final step is to wait for propagation to be complete before you can then cancel your old hosting account. Use the DNSchecker website to verify propagation has occurred worldwide.
If for some reason you don’t see the option to restore a home directory backup, contact your hosting provider and tell them you have a cPanel backup you are wanting to import. They will likely have you send them the file and then do the import for you.
