Overview
This article describes how to manually transfer your website and email from your old hosting company to DreamHost. This process involves the following steps:
- Step 1 — Backing up your data from your old hosting company
- Step 2 — Uploading your data to DreamHost
- Step 3 — Viewing your site at DreamHost before pointing DNS
- Step 4 — Pointing your DNS to DreamHost
Prerequisites
Before proceeding, make sure you have created a DreamHost account by signing up for a hosting plan. During the signup process, select the option I already have a domain. This allows you to add your current domain name to your new DreamHost account.
FAQs
Does adding my domain to DreamHost affect my live website?
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No. Adding your domain to DreamHost at this point does NOT affect your current live website in any way. It will remain functioning normally at your current host until you point your DNS records in Step #4.
Are there other transfer options?
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The following alternative options are available to transfer your site to DreamHost.
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Migration service — If you are having trouble migrating your website or just don't have the time, DreamHost offers a service that takes care of this for you. You can find more information in the Website migration services article.
WordPress migration options — See the Migrating WordPress overview article for a list of alternative WordPress options.
Do I need to transfer my domain registration?
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No. You do not need to transfer your registration to DreamHost during this process. This article only explains how to transfer your website's data to DreamHost, which is separate from your domain registration.
You can always transfer it at any time in the future by following the steps in this article.
How to transfer your live website
The following steps transfer your website content to DreamHost.
Backing up your data from your old hosting company
This step backs up the website data from your old hosting company to your home computer.
You'll need to back up the following:
- Website files
- Database file (Only if your site uses a database. Make sure it is exported with a .sql extension.)
Contact your old hosting company for their instructions on how to back up this content. They may have a simple way to export the data. If not, you'll need to back everything up manually.
Uploading your data to DreamHost
This step uploads the data from your home computer to your new DreamHost account.
Website files — Use an FTP client to log into your DreamHost server and upload your website files. See this article for instructions on where to upload the files on the server.
Database file — See this article for instructions on how to import your database.
Email — See this article for instructions on how to import email into your new DreamHost account.
Viewing your site at DreamHost (before pointing DNS)
This step allows you to view how your site will appear at DreamHost before you point your DNS.
- This does not affect your live site at all.
- It just allows you to confirm that your site is configured properly at DreamHost before pointing its DNS.
At this point, you have uploaded your website content to DreamHost, but it is still hosted at your old hosting company. This means that when you view it in a browser, it is loading from your your old host. It will only load from your DreamHost server after you point its DNS records to DreamHost.
However, before you point DNS records, you should test to confirm your site looks and functions as intended on your new DreamHost server.
Edit your computer's host file
To view your site as it appears on your DreamHost server, you will need to edit your computer's hosts file. This file is used to map a domain name to an IP address, so by editing it, you can force your home computer to load the website from your DreamHost server (even though it's still hosted at your old hosting company). See this article for instructions on editing the hosts file to point to DreamHost.
After you have confirmed your site is functioning correctly, make sure to remove the lines you just added when testing.
Pointing your DNS to DreamHost
This step points your website's DNS records to DreamHost.
At this point, your website and all its files are on DreamHost's servers, but your site is still 'hosted' at your old company. You must now update your DNS to point to DreamHost
You have two options when pointing DNS.
- Point the nameservers (recommended)
- Point the A records
What option should I choose?
Both options function to load your website at DreamHost. However, depending on your website's hosting requirements, you may need to use one option over the other.
Review the DreamHost DNS overview article for a quick overview of how DNS is used to control where your domain's services are hosted.
Nameservers (recommended)
Pointing your nameservers is recommended because it automatically points ALL of your DNS records to DreamHost. See the following articles to learn more about nameservers, how to view where they are pointed, and point them to DreamHost.
- Nameservers overview
- Checking where your Nameservers are pointed
- How do I change my nameservers at my current host?
A Records
Pointing A Records is only necessary if you need to keep specific services (like email) active at your old hosting company. This is more difficult because you must confirm which services to point to DreamHost and which to continue hosting at your current company.
See this article for instructions on how to view the IP addresses at DreamHost you'll need to point your A Records to. You'll then need to check with your old hosting company for instructions on how to update these records.
Wait for the DNS records to update
After pointing your DNS records to DreamHost, they will need time to propagate online.
A Records could take 6 hours to update, but nameservers could take up to 72 hours to fully update.
It is not possible to speed up this process since servers throughout the world update DNS records on their own schedule.
Once the DNS records have updated online, your website will load as it is configured on your DreamHost server.