Move website files and database from Bluehost to GoDaddy

• ✓An active GoDaddy hosting plan, provisioned and showing a temporary URL or IP address
• ✓Bluehost account access with File Manager or FTP, and phpMyAdmin
• ✓Enough local disk space for a full copy of the site — check the Bluehost disk usage figure first
• ✓The WordPress admin login, if the site is WordPress

1. 1At Bluehost

   Take a full backup before touching anything

   Download a copy of both the files and the database and keep it off both hosts. This is not the migration copy — it is the thing you restore from when the migration copy turns out to be incomplete.

   • Files: Bluehost portal → Hosting → File Manager, or connect over FTP/SFTP
   • Database: phpMyAdmin → select the database → Export → Quick → SQL
   • Store both somewhere that is not Bluehost and not GoDaddy
2. 2At Bluehost

   Compress public_html on the Bluehost side

   Zipping on the server and downloading one archive is dramatically faster and more reliable than pulling thousands of small files over FTP, which is where WordPress migrations usually stall.

   • In File Manager, open public_html, select all, then Compress → Zip Archive
   • Turn on hidden files first — .htaccess is hidden by default and is easy to leave behind
   • If your plan includes SSH, zip -r site.zip public_html is faster still
   Over SSH, if your Bluehost plan allows it

   cd ~
   zip -r site-backup.zip public_html -x '*/cache/*' '*/wp-content/cache/*'
   mysqldump -u DBUSER -p DBNAME > site-db.sql

3. 3At Bluehost

   Export the database from phpMyAdmin

   Export the whole database as a single SQL file. For WordPress, the database name is in wp-config.php — open it and note DB_NAME, DB_USER and DB_PASSWORD while you are there, because you will need to rewrite all three.

   • phpMyAdmin → select the database → Export tab → Quick, format SQL → Go
   • If the export times out or the file is over ~50 MB, use mysqldump over SSH instead
   • Do not export from the Databases home screen — that includes system tables you do not want
4. 4At GoDaddy

   Upload the archive to GoDaddy and extract it

   In GoDaddy's cPanel File Manager, upload the zip into public_html and extract it there. Uploading one archive and extracting on the server avoids a multi-hour FTP crawl.

   • GoDaddy → Web Hosting → Manage → File Manager
   • Navigate to public_html, then Upload, then Extract the archive
   • If the zip contained the public_html folder itself, move the contents up one level so index.php sits directly in public_html
   • For very large sites, FTP with FileZilla is the documented alternative
5. 5At GoDaddy

   Create the database and user at GoDaddy

   cPanel database users are separate from the database. Create both, then explicitly grant the user All Privileges on the database — a migration that loads the site but shows "Error establishing a database connection" is almost always a missing grant.

   • cPanel → Databases → MySQL Databases → create a database
   • Create a user, then Add User To Database → All Privileges
   • Write down the full names — cPanel prefixes both with your account name
6. 6At GoDaddy

   Import the SQL file

   Import into the empty database you just created, through phpMyAdmin on the GoDaddy side.

   • cPanel → phpMyAdmin → select the new database → Import → choose the .sql file → Go
   • phpMyAdmin's upload limit is the usual failure point; if the file is too large, split it or import over SSH
   • Wait for the success message before moving on — a partial import leaves a site that half works
7. 7At GoDaddy

   Update wp-config.php with the new credentials

   The site will not connect until wp-config.php names the GoDaddy database, user and password. On GoDaddy cPanel hosting, DB_HOST stays localhost.

   wp-config.php

   define( 'DB_NAME', 'yourcpanel_dbname' );
   define( 'DB_USER', 'yourcpanel_dbuser' );
   define( 'DB_PASSWORD', 'the password you just set' );
   define( 'DB_HOST', 'localhost' );

8. 8At GoDaddy

   Test on a temporary URL before you touch DNS

   This is the step that separates a calm migration from a bad one. Load the GoDaddy copy while the live site is still served by Bluehost, and fix what is broken with no audience watching.

   • Use the temporary URL or IP that GoDaddy provides for the hosting account
   • Better: edit your local hosts file to point the real domain at GoDaddy's IP, so WordPress renders with the correct domain and you catch redirect loops
   • Click through the site properly — forms, logins, checkout, an image deep in an old post
   hosts file entry (macOS/Linux: /etc/hosts)

   203.0.113.10  example.com www.example.com

9. 9At GoDaddy

   Fix the predictable breakage

   A handful of things reliably differ between the two hosts. Work through them before cutover rather than discovering them live.

   • PHP version — match Bluehost's version first, upgrade as a separate change later
   • File permissions — directories 755, files 644
   • Confirm .htaccess actually came across; if permalinks 404, it did not
   • Re-create any cron jobs; they do not travel with files
   • Check the error log for anything referencing a Bluehost-specific path

• Managed Hosting for WordPress is a different job

  Can cause downtime

  If you bought GoDaddy's Managed Hosting for WordPress rather than cPanel hosting, ignore the File Manager route — there is no cPanel and no phpMyAdmin. Use GoDaddy's importer, which installs the ManageWP Worker plugin on your Bluehost site and pulls it across. It needs the Bluehost site to be publicly reachable for the whole process, so run it before you change any DNS.

• Hidden files are silently skipped

  Can cause downtime

  .htaccess, .user.ini and similar dotfiles do not appear in File Manager until you enable hidden files, and they do not get included in a zip you build from a selection that never showed them. A WordPress site missing .htaccess loads the homepage fine and 404s on every other page.

• Large database imports fail quietly in phpMyAdmin

  Can cause delays

  Above roughly 50 MB the import hits the upload or execution limit. Sometimes it errors; sometimes it stops partway and reports nothing useful. Check the table count after importing against the source, rather than trusting the absence of an error.

• Email does not live in the files

  Can cause downtime

  Mailboxes hosted at Bluehost are not in public_html and are not in the database. If you use Bluehost email, that is a separate migration — download the mail via IMAP before you cancel, or the messages go with the account.

• Cached URLs baked into the database

  Can cause delays

  If the domain is changing as well as the host, the old domain is written throughout the database — in post content, in widget settings, in serialized option arrays. Use a proper search-replace tool that understands PHP serialization; a raw SQL find-and-replace corrupts serialized data and breaks theme settings.

• ✓The site loads on GoDaddy's temporary URL, or on the real domain via a hosts file entry, with no database connection error
• ✓Interior pages load — not just the homepage — which proves .htaccess and permalinks survived
• ✓Images in old posts render, confirming wp-content/uploads came across in full
• ✓wp-admin logs in and the plugin list matches the Bluehost site
• ✓The GoDaddy error log is clean after a few minutes of clicking around

Nothing is live yet, so rollback is simply: do not change DNS. The Bluehost site continues serving as it always has. Delete the GoDaddy copy and start again if the import went badly.

• Upload files using my Web Hosting (cPanel) File ManagerGoDaddyOfficial docs
• Move my cPanel website with FTP and FileZillaGoDaddyOfficial docs
• Move my WordPress site automatically to Managed Hosting for WordPressGoDaddyOfficial docs
• Migrate my WordPress site manuallyGoDaddyOfficial docs
• FTP on Bluehost: Setup, Tools and TroubleshootingBluehostOfficial docs
• Website Migration serviceGoDaddyOfficial docs
• Migrate a WordPress site with a pluginGoDaddyOfficial docs