Title: Change Primary Domain: Editing SQL database
Last modified: August 20, 2016

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# Change Primary Domain: Editing SQL database

 *  Resolved [Don](https://wordpress.org/support/users/d_random/)
 * (@d_random)
 * [14 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/change-primary-domain-editing-sql-database/)
 * I am using the tutorial on the below link to change the primary domain for my
   multisite:
 * [http://www.wordpress-website.org/2010/12/change-primary-domain-wordpress-multisite-network/](http://www.wordpress-website.org/2010/12/change-primary-domain-wordpress-multisite-network/)
 * I have opened the .sql database (a downloaded .gz file) in Step #4 in order to
   change to change all instances to the new domain, but when I open the database
   in Notepad all I see is gibberish.
 * Is there an app that I can use to edit the sql database for this purpose?

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

 *  [Andrea Rennick](https://wordpress.org/support/users/andrea_r/)
 * (@andrea_r)
 * [14 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/change-primary-domain-editing-sql-database/#post-2256876)
 * > (a downloaded .gz file)
 *  gz is basically zipped. you need to uncompress it first. or download it in a
   zip, which is an option.
 *  Thread Starter [Don](https://wordpress.org/support/users/d_random/)
 * (@d_random)
 * [14 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/change-primary-domain-editing-sql-database/#post-2256901)
 * Thank you Andrea_r!
    I have not seen .gz file before, so that confused me.
 * **One additional question**: The instructions say to change ALL instances of 
   the old domain name to the new one. But I am coming across many instances that
   do not pertain to the database (i.e. comments).
 * **Is there a better way to do this besides using a text editor?**
 *  [Andrea Rennick](https://wordpress.org/support/users/andrea_r/)
 * (@andrea_r)
 * [14 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/change-primary-domain-editing-sql-database/#post-2256931)
 * text editors have search & replace. 😉 at least, the ones better than notepad
   do.
 * there’s also search & replace plugins in the plugin repo.
 *  Moderator [Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ipstenu/)
 * (@ipstenu)
 * 🏳️‍🌈 Advisor and Activist
 * [14 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/change-primary-domain-editing-sql-database/#post-2256983)
 * If you use windows, Notepad++ is free. Mac, try TextWrangler

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

The topic ‘Change Primary Domain: Editing SQL database’ is closed to new replies.

## Tags

 * [change primary domain](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/change-primary-domain/)

 * In: [Networking WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/multisite/)
 * 4 replies
 * 3 participants
 * Last reply from: [Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ipstenu/)
 * Last activity: [14 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/change-primary-domain-editing-sql-database/#post-2256983)
 * Status: resolved

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