This article was written for Magento 1.x and is kept for reference. Running Magento 1 in 2026 is a security risk — ask me about migrating to Magento 2 / Adobe Commerce.
Steps to move a Magento installation to a new host:
- Take a backup of your database.
- Take a backup of your files.
- Create a new database on the new host.
- Note the new database name, user and password.
- Update the connection details in
app/etc/local.xml(Magento 1) orapp/etc/env.php(Magento 2) with the new host, username, password and database name. - Update the base URLs in the
core_config_datatable if the domain changes. - Clear
var/cacheandvar/session, then test the site and admin.