After moving a site: the checklist for the first day

The site opens and looks the same: that does not yet mean everything is right. The failures of a move turn up in places nobody visits in the first minute: the form that does not send, the certificate that has not arrived, the scheduled task left behind. This list is for the first day after the domain points to the new hosting.

The list, in order

1 Pages and links. Open the home page, three inner pages and one with images. Click links in the menu and the footer. If any of them leads to the old address, the addresses stored in the database were not updated.
2 The padlock (https). The free certificate on the new account is only issued once the domain points to it, so it may take a while to show. If the warning persists, see no padlock on your site: the causes, in order.
3 Forms. Send a test message and confirm it arrives. See a contact form that actually reaches your inbox.
4 E-mail. Send and receive a message in each important mailbox. Confirm the domain’s mail records are right, and keep reading the old mailbox for a few days. See why your e-mail is not sending or receiving.
5 Scheduled tasks. Cron jobs do not travel with the files. Create them again. See cron jobs: what they are for and how to create one.
6 PHP. The version and the extensions must match the old site’s. See viewing and adjusting your PHP configuration.
7 The error log. Open the error log after you have clicked around the site. An error that repeats is a clue. See where the PHP error log is and how to read it.
8 Third-party services. Payment providers, APIs and tools that only accept an allowed IP address still hold the old server’s IP. Update them. Webhooks that pointed at the domain keep working; those that pointed at an IP do not.
9 The first backup. Make a copy of your own of the new site now, before you touch anything else. See making and keeping your own backup, and testing that it works.
10 Cancel the old one last. Keep the old hosting on until you have confirmed the site and the e-mail on the new one.
Check If it fails, most likely
Links to the old domain Addresses stored in the database. See changing the WordPress site address, and what breaks when it goes wrong.
Inner pages give a 404 The .htaccess is missing or permalinks need re-saving. See WordPress permalinks and the 404 that follows.
Mixed content warning Images or scripts still asking for http. See mixed content after moving to HTTPS.
Form does not send PHP mail sending or the domain’s mail records need sorting out.
Errors the old one never gave PHP version, or a missing extension.
Do not make real changes while you test. An order, a comment or a sign-up made on the new site while part of the public still sees the old one ends up in only one of the two, and is lost when DNS settles. See how long DNS changes take to propagate.
Do the list once, keep it. Next move, or a client’s, you already have the essentials. If the site is leaving shared hosting for a VPS, there is more to check: moving a site from shared hosting to a VPS.

Done the list and something still fails? Tell us the domain and what you see, and we will tell you where to start.

Open a support ticket

SEE ALSO

Moving a site by hand: files by FTP and the database

Testing a migrated site before you change the DNS (the hosts file)

Will changing hosting hurt your Google ranking?

How to migrate a site without downtime

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