[How To?] Transferring a forum to a new domain

[Schazer]

Hi all,

My URL, eagle-time.com, was stolen/transferred out of my ownership without my consent by GoDaddy/Uniregistry, and since then my forum's been inaccessible to the general public. Fortunately, hosting is separate so I've still got the site in its entirety.

I've finally given up on retrieving my old domain name, and purchased a new one (eagle-time.org). I've exported the database using phpmyadmin, and am using Filezilla/FTP to download/backup all of the files.

I'm relying entirely on guides/tutorials other people have posted online to complete the transfer process, so I've got a few questions:
1) What's the process for uploading the databases and site files to a new domain? Could someone please point me to a recommended guide/tutorial?
2) What's the easiest method for fixing all the internal links which will be broken?
3) When in the process should I update to the newest version of myBB?

Thanks for your help!

[nixer55]

There's a general guide in the MyBB docs that'll help you get started.

Lots of details in web hosting that can affect you, so a generic guide is about all you can expect.

[Taylor M]

If you’re hosting itself is not compromised just connect the new domain to the hosting account.

Then change all instances of the old domain to the new domain in inc/settings.php

Directly after that navigate to yoursite.com/admin/index.php and go to Configuration > Site Details and then modify your domain information again, click save, and you should be up and running on the new domain.

[Schazer]

If you’re hosting itself is not compromised just connect the new domain to the hosting account.

Then change all instances of the old domain to the new domain in inc/settings.php

Directly after that navigate to yoursite.com/admin/index.php and go to Configuration > Site Details and then modify your domain information again, click save, and you should be up and running on the new domain.

I assume it's best to ask my registrar/web host how to connect the new domain to the correct account? All my sites are at the same IP address because I'm using vhost, so I'm unsure if that complicates things at all.

Do I find inc/settings.php through phpMyAdmin, by looking through the site's files on a FTP, or somewhere else?

[nixer55]

snip snip...

Do I find inc/settings.php through phpMyAdmin, by looking through the site's files on a FTP, or somewhere else?

It's a file.  I think many use their hosting control panel, i.e. cPanel.  But no reason you couldn't use something like FileZilla.  The /inc folder is right off the root of your MyBB installation.

[Taylor M]

I assume it's best to ask my registrar/web host how to connect the new domain to the correct account? All my sites are at the same IP address because I'm using vhost, so I'm unsure if that complicates things at all.

Do I find inc/settings.php through phpMyAdmin, by looking through the site's files on a FTP, or somewhere else?

They'd probably be more than happy to help you! Just reach out to customer support.

settings.php is a file so would need to accessed by a file management system. nixer55 is correct. cPanel's file manager would work but other FTP clients would work as well. FileZilla seems to be most common but I personally much prefer WinSCP.