Migrating from GoDaddy to DreamHost overview

This step backs up the website data from GoDaddy to your home computer.

Downloading your website files at GoDaddy

1. Log in to your GoDaddy account.
2. Select the link for the My Products page.
3. Under the Web Hosting section, find your domain and click the Manage button next to it.
4. On the top menu bar, select File Manager. The cPanel file manager launches, which shows you a directory list on the left.
5. Click the public_html folder. All of your site’s files will be visible on the right.
6. Check the Select All box to select of your site files, and then click the Compress button on the top left menu bar.
7. Select the Zip Archive option and click Compress Now.
8. Once the compression completes and the zip file is created, click it and select the Download button.

Exporting your site's database at GoDaddy

1. Log in to your GoDaddy account.
2. Select the link for the My Products page.
3. Under the Web Hosting section, find your domain and click the Manage button next to it.
4. On the top menu bar, select phpMyAdmin.
5. When phpMyAdmin launches, select your database in the left menu.
6. In the top menu, click the Export button.
7. Select Quick as your export method and SQL as your Format.
8. Press the Go button, and the database will download to your computer.

This step uploads the data from your home computer to your new DreamHost account.

Uploading your website files to DreamHost

1. Navigate to the Manage Websites page of the DreamHost panel.
2. Under your domain, click the My Files button. This automatically logs you into the file manager server.
3. Double-click your site's directory from the list of files and folders to enter it.
4. In the site's directory, select the upload icon.
5. From the menu that appears, select Upload Zip. 
6. Select the zip archive of your public_html folder that you downloaded previously. A window pops up asking you what you want to do with the archive.
7. Click the Upload and Unzip button to upload the site data and complete the process.

Uploading your database at DreamHost

1. Log into your DreamHost account and navigate to the MySQL Databases page.
2. Log into phpMyAdmin.
3. Select the destination database in the left menu.
4. Click on the Import tab in the top center pane.
5. Under the File to import section, click Browse and locate the file with the .sql extension you wish to import.
6. Check or uncheck the boxes for Partial import and Other options.
7. From the Format dropdown menu choose SQL.
8. Click the Go button at the bottom to import the database.

Uploading email to DreamHost

See this article for instructions on how to import email into your new DreamHost account.

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.

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 GoDaddy. 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. 

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.