Caution: As there is a risk of related errors, we recommend that you avoid manually moving or renaming your WordPress files. Instead, the best approach is to clone your website. Then check your permalinks to ensure the path is correct. If you manually move your homepage, you will need to update the index.php file. If you're interested in learning more about why you shouldn't move or rename WordPress files, visit this article.
Clone a WordPress site
- Sign in to your My Services page.
- Click the Web Hosting link.
- Click the WordPress Toolkit link on the left toolbar.
- Click the Clone link for the website you want to clone. A modal opens to the clone settings.
- Select Use existing domain and enter a clone path to create a subfolder. Note: The default clone path is staging.
- Enter a Database Name following the WordPress default name or leave it as auto-populated.
- Click the Start button.
- A confirmation message appears when the cloning process is completed.
Update your permalinks
- Go to your WordPress control panel. Note: Access your console using the new path you created. For example, if you renamed your folder wordpress, you'll now sign in at http://your-website-here.net/wordpress/wp-admin/.
- Click Settings | Permalinks.
- Based on your new blog location, edit your permalink structure and click Update Permalink Structure. Caution: Once you've moved or renamed your blog files, previously saved links and permalinks won't work any longer. You'll need to update your URL locations on the control panel before renaming or moving your installation directory.
Update your homepage file
Reference the new location of your files in your homepage. Note: Only use the following steps if you manually changed your homepage location in the File Manager.
- Find the file named index.php in your File Manager.
- Click the Edit icon in the PHP Editor.
- Find code that looks like this: require('.//blog/wp-blog-header.php'). Tip: This code refers to the location of your files. To display your blog correctly, you'll need to change this code to your new file location.
- If you moved your files from the directory blog into a new directory called wordpress, then you'd change it to: require('.//wordpress/wp-blog-header.php')
- Click Save and Continue.