File Permissions Problems with New Host

[mtskys]

Ok - having many little issues with my new host. It appears I am having all kinds of file permission issues with the different sites I have that are Word Press sites.

One problem I see is that I can't change any widgets on one of my sites, but can on the other two.

One site I can set up google sitemap, but can't on the other two.

I have emailed them when I run into issues, they say they fix it, but then I do something new and I hit a new permission issue. I am not sure when you transfer sites versus starting a new site from scratch - if you run into having to ask them to change permissions - I am a newbie so have no idea what the permissions should be or how to securely change them... Do all hosts require every little change to modify the perms? Frustrated...

[Cozy Monica]

Your FTP program should have an option to change the permissions on any file that you've uploaded to your server.

I use SmartFTP and you just right-click on a file and select CHMOD and fiddle around with permissions to your heart's content.

However, it's important to keep in mind that if you are using the wrong permissions, you are opening up your scripts to all the other people that share your server. And that can be dangerous.

You should look on wordpress.org to find the permissions you want to be using, I'm pretty sure it's in the installation docs.

[mtskys]

Thanks Monica - That is what I have been trigger shy about is opening things up that shouldn't be - especially as this is all new to me. I finally got someone at support on it a bit more seriously to review all the issues as 1 thing gets fixed, then 2 things break, so hopefully they can adjust it and keep it secure, etc. I will check the docs further too - thanks

[whiskey]

Monica is correct. Check the permissions on your FTP client. Most likely you'll want 755, which is the equivalent of rwxr-xr-x. This means the file owner (you and the userid your webserver runs as) can read, write and execute (the first rwx -- r = Read, w = Write, x = execute). Your group (again, most likely you and the userid your webserver runs as) can read and execute programs (the second grouping of three, r-x -- notice that there are no Write permissions. The rest of the world can also read and execute, too (the third group, represented by the last r-x).

[mtskys]

Thank you - I will review this and see what my hosting site "defaults" things to - I appreciate it.

[mtskys]

One thing I should have mentioned is they are saying I had set things to "secure" mode (which I think must have been a default), but makes the user name different then the apache username... foreign to me still - They say this is what is causing the problem, but I want it to be secure, but usable for me to things.... more reading I am sure I must do. Thanks all.

[King Porn]

Did you just copy all of your files from your old host to your new?

You should have installed a fresh copy on your new host, uploaded your theme, import your database, and reactivate your plugins one at a time. Just copying the files over doesn't actually install the scripts and configure it properly.

If you didn't do this then it could be what is causing your problems.

[Cozy Monica]

King Porn is right, you absolutely cannot just copy your files over if you are using a script like that.

[Matt-RevShare]

Originally posted by King Porn
Did you just copy all of your files from your old host to your new?

You should have installed a fresh copy on your new host, uploaded your theme, import your database, and reactivate your plugins one at a time. Just copying the files over doesn't actually install the scripts and configure it properly.

If you didn't do this then it could be what is causing your problems.

Great advice King Porn!

Blogs are more complicted than galleries in that you should ftp a fresh version of the site and set it up as if you were loading it for the first time.

Wordpress.org is an excellent resource site and I refer customers to this resource all the time. WordPress is a very powerful program and gives webmasters all kind of options, but it can also be very confusing at times as well.

Good luck!

Matt

[mtskys]

Ahhhh - I didn't do it right then, cause I copied them over. NEWBIE!!! Could have sworn I followed step by step off of WordPresses website on "Moving to another server".

One site seems to be functioning fairly well, and I have been updating it. The other one, I haven't updated. So if I am going to do it right, I will redo the one that is all fowled up. If you don't copy the files up - everything is still there in the DB? You would have to copy image files up - correct?

Any suggestions on the one I have been updating already?

The one that I should redo - since the DB has been installed, I should just rebuild the files fresh, copy up my images, reinstall the plugins and give that a shot? I will also revisit WP documentation....

One site I built fresh on the new host. I have one glitch with the Manage Posts screen, it does not show all of those listed, it shows the Export screen. I can not seem to find the "list" of posts, I have to go to them individually. Anyone seen that before? I think perms are good on that site as I have been able to do most things witout difficulty.

Thanks all - Wow, if you have a lot of blogs and choose to move hosts..... that could be a bit of work?

[King Porn]

Originally posted by mtskys

Thanks all - Wow, if you have a lot of blogs and choose to move hosts..... that could be a bit of work?

Work, yes.... But painless if you conduct the appropiate planning.

[mtskys]

I hear you King - Thanks - I defintely missed a step in my plan. Any other insight on my other comments?

[Cozy Monica]

What you need to do is treat the new installation like an upgrade.

You will need to backup the old database from your old server by using phpmyadmin. Then back up your old installation of wordpress.

On the new server, you will need to create a new database. You will then need to use your backup of the database from the old server to populate the new database. You will also have to update the wordpress config file with the new server and database information.

You will need to upload wordpress to your new server. Then you will want to point your browser to the upgrade.php file. It should find the database no problem and set up Wordpress to go.

From there, you will have to upload your old theme and any image files you customized, any uploads you had done, and you'll need to update your permalinks and the htaccess file.

I'm sure I forgot something... but if you look on the wordpress site you can find good instructions about upgrading wordpress, and those are pretty much the ones you want to follow.

As for the freshly installed blog that isn't displaying the posts properly in the manage screen, I'm really uncertain why you would encounter that glitch. You might have to post in the wordpress support forums, and search them heavily to see if you can find anything that applies.

[mtskys]

Great - Thank you very much.

[Cozy Monica]

Sorry, I'm totally wrong. I just did some more reading and you shouldn't have to run the upgrade file at all.

Did you set up the URIs in the old installation of wordpress before you backed up your database?

[mtskys]

Originally posted by Cozy Monica
Sorry, I'm totally wrong. I just did some more reading and you shouldn't have to run the upgrade file at all.

Did you set up the URIs in the old installation of wordpress before you backed up your database?

I am not sure whtat "set up the URIs in the old" means - so I am sure I did not. I am going to be crashing for the night here, so I will be dropping off... I will review WordPress again to see if I can find the document I did follow - as it is curious to me (maybe I wasn't on the actual WP site...) But I am interested in what you mean by the URIs as I don't know what that is. Thank Monica

[mtskys]

I knew I wouldn't sleep if I didn't look for this first - here is the excerpt on the WordPress site:

http://codex.wordpress.org/Moving_WordPress

Moving WordPress to a New Server

If you are moving WordPress from one server to another, begin by backing up your data. This includes backing up your WordPress database as well as all the core files, images, plugins, and other files on your site. See WordPress Backups and Backing Up Your Database for more details.

Note: If you are changing to a new server but same domain, all you need to do is edit wp-config.php and upload everything as it is to your new server.
If You Don't Care If Your Old Blog Works

Download a copy of the main wordpress files from your OLD blog to your hard drive and edit wp-config.php to suit the new server.
Go back to your OLD blog and go to options and change the url (both of them) to that of your new site.
Again, download your database (but keep the old one just in case), upload this new database and the copy of the wordpress core files with the edited wp-config.php to your new server. Thats it!

I didn't change the URL as the domain name was going to be the same but on a new host. So maybe I misunderstood moving to a new server is different than a new host... Anyway, this is what I followed. Night night..

[Cozy Monica]

If the domain is the same, then you followed the right instructions.

So, did you backup the database and then import it on the new server?

Did you copy over your plugins and then choose to activate them in the plugins menu in your wordpress admin?

Which version of Wordpress are you using? The old ones use widgets as a plugin, and the newest release has them built in.

If you are using an older version, you may want to copy over the widgets plugin again. If you do, you should deactivate the widgets plugin in your plugin list first, then delete it in your plugins folder. Then upload it again, and go to your plugins menu and choose to activate it. See if that makes them work.

[theviking]

What host are you moving to?

servage?

[mtskys]

Originally posted by Cozy Monica
If the domain is the same, then you followed the right instructions.

So, did you backup the database and then import it on the new server?

Did you copy over your plugins and then choose to activate them in the plugins menu in your wordpress admin?

Which version of Wordpress are you using? The old ones use widgets as a plugin, and the newest release has them built in.

If you are using an older version, you may want to copy over the widgets plugin again. If you do, you should deactivate the widgets plugin in your plugin list first, then delete it in your plugins folder. Then upload it again, and go to your plugins menu and choose to activate it. See if that makes them work.

Yes the domain is the same. I did backup the database and then had it imported. The plugins were just "there" when I opened up the WP Admin. Come to think of it, I may have been deactivating and reactivating some of them as I noticed certain issues. But they were there as I had copied the files from the old server.

I am using version 2.2.1. I think it has the widgets built in.

So, I did do the right steps? Thanks for confirming that - since I have trouble with this particular site still, what would you do if it was yours? Can it and start fresh? Support said they will look at the permissions again for me, but I was holding off as I thought I had done it wrong and I needed to start the blog fresh like we all thought a bit earlier in the thread.

Also, in the other thread, there was talk about the .htaccess file, I still haven't figured out what that file is for as the instructions didn't tell me to do anything with it. I may need to reread that thread. Thanks for your help.