Q. How do I transfer / migrate my Joomla site from my old Host (or PC) to another Host ?

A. Use Joomlapack to back up your site and restore it with Kickstart as per the following instructions .

Solution:

• If your Host's Control Panel has a provision for installing Joomla

Use that to install Joomla on your site and then overwrite the folders/files and database tables with kickstart. That should give Joomla ownership.

Then upload folders/files of your site except the configuration.php file, overwriting the ones that are there.  And transfer your Database Tables with phpMyAdmin.
(N.B. Most Host's CP have a phpMyAdmin.).

or

• If your Host's Control Panel has a provision for unzipping files on the server

Then zip up the folders/files of your site and upload the zip file to your server.  Unzip the file on your server.

Use phpMyAdmin to create a Database and import the Tables from your site.

Edit your configuration.php file to reflect the correct Database details and the correct paths.

or

• If your Host's Control Panel does not have a provision for installing Joomla or for unzipping files on the server.

1. Use Joomlapack to backup your site http://extensions.joomla.org/extensions/access-a-security/backup/1606
2. Set it to save the site in .jpa format
3. Download kickstart and unzip on your PC http://www.akeebabackup.com/download/kickstart-241/index.html
4. Upload the .jpa file and kickstart.php.
5. Point your browser at http://yoursite.com/kickstart.php

When you restore with kickstart

• Tick Use FTP.
• Tick Restore file/directory permissions (JPA archives only).
• Fill in your FTP details.
• Set Initial Directory /www or /public_html
• Click start and wait for the files to copy
• Then follow the instructions on the screen
• Fill in the Database details
• Ignore the FTP layer info screen .. just click next
• Fill in site name email and password
• Follow the instruction to delete the installation details and restore the .htaccess file.
• It may be neccesary to edit the .htaccess file to fit your new servers configuration.

Additional information :

If you have problems with permissions after installing your backup then read Ownerships and Permissions.