Title: Problems installing/migrating
Last modified: August 21, 2016

---

# Problems installing/migrating

 *  Resolved [ddas](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ddas/)
 * (@ddas)
 * [11 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/problems-installingmigrating/)
 * This is a bit complicated to explain but I’ll try and be clear. Running the latest
   WP 3.9.1 on everything. Hosted at LunarPages and I’ve never had any MySQL/PHP/
   WP problems there for years.
 * I had the original (20110 version of my site at root level.
 * I’ve been working on a new completely overhauled site, which is in a subfolder(
   let’s call it site2014).
 * I used the plug-in Duplicator to make a complete backup of the 2011 root-level
   site, and I created a copy of the original site in another subfolder (let’s call
   it site2011). So at this point, I’ve got two versions of the original 2011 site
   running (with separate MySQL databases).
 * My goal was to move the new overhauled site (site2014) to root level).
 * So I put a simple index.html at root level, with redirect code to point to the
   site2011 folder. That way, I was free to delete the original site at root level,
   and during the migration, the public would still see the 2011 site (albeit at
   the site2011 URL but that’s fine for my purposes).
 * So far so good!
 * At this point I removed all the root level files belonging to the old original
   site.
 * I went to the site2014 backend, and used Duplicator to back the whole thing up
   and make me an installer.
 * I used that backup and installer, moved it to the root level, and installed it(
   again, all the site2014 database content was copied to a new MySQL database).
   It installed and didn’t report any errors, however, all I saw was a white screen.
   Long story short, I renamed the plug-in folder to “pluginsX” and suddenly the
   site kicked to life, and by process of elimination was able to find the plug-
   in that was causing it problems (Easy Digital Downloads 2.0.1), deleted it, reinstalled
   it, and now it seems happy.
 * However, there are a few differences between the new root-level site and site2014.
   Theme-specific things like sidebars not appearing, and so on. I can’t figure 
   out why and I can’t seem to fix it.
 * But most mysteriously, if I go to site2014 (which I left there) it also has the
   white screen — even though I didn’t modify it at ALL. So I disabled all plug-
   ins, and it worked, so by process of elimination was able to figure out the plug-
   in that was causing it: Easy Digital Downloads 2.0.1. I deleted it and re-installed
   it, but without fail, it always causes the white screen (I have tested 5x).
 * So…after all that, my questions boil down to:
 * 1) Any clues why EDD 2.0.1 would cause this, and why it’s now functioning at 
   my root level site but not at my site2014 site? Any ideas how to “reset” it completely
   so that I can reinstall it on site2014? (site2014 is going to become my sandbox
   once all this is over)
 * 2) Any ideas why this migration was sort of fine but not perfect? Did I do something
   wrong? Any better ways to do it?
 * I’ll redo the whole migration if it solves my problems (I still have the site2011
   folder which I can redirect to if I need to delete everything and start over).
   This has been a maddening waste of hours so far!

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

 *  [jon](https://wordpress.org/support/users/adiant/)
 * (@adiant)
 * [11 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/problems-installingmigrating/#post-5001328)
 * “My goal was to move the new overhauled site (site2014) to root level.”
 * I find that this has always been the best approach when I’ve wanted to do this:
   [http://codex.wordpress.org/Giving_WordPress_Its_Own_Directory#Using_a_pre-existing_subdirectory_install](http://codex.wordpress.org/Giving_WordPress_Its_Own_Directory#Using_a_pre-existing_subdirectory_install)
   
   in the “Using a pre-existing subdirectory install” section.
 *  Thread Starter [ddas](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ddas/)
 * (@ddas)
 * [11 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/problems-installingmigrating/#post-5001330)
 * BRILLIANT. I wish I had known about this before I started moving all this stuff.
   Thanks for the tip.
 * I would still do it, except my site2014 version is now malfunctioning and won’t
   allow me to install EDD properly and I can’t figure it out. I might just bite
   the bullet and rebuild this site from scratch (which will suck, but what choice
   do I have when the whole thing is going haywire…)
 * Thank you for the reply!
 *  [jon](https://wordpress.org/support/users/adiant/)
 * (@adiant)
 * [11 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/problems-installingmigrating/#post-5001412)
 * Your host probably has backups that would allow you to restore the database and
   WordPress files back to when they were working.
 *  Thread Starter [ddas](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ddas/)
 * (@ddas)
 * [11 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/problems-installingmigrating/#post-5001413)
 * Thanks Jon, good idea…I will go look into that.
 * I ended up having to do a complete clean install of the site, and am now being
   meticulous about backups to avoid any possible problems.

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

The topic ‘Problems installing/migrating’ is closed to new replies.

## Tags

 * [installation](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/installation/)

 * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/)
 * 4 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [ddas](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ddas/)
 * Last activity: [11 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/problems-installingmigrating/#post-5001413)
 * Status: resolved

## Topics

### Topics with no replies

### Non-support topics

### Resolved topics

### Unresolved topics

### All topics
