For some reason you need to migrate your site to a new host.
Now you have to make a choice:-
1) Do it yourself
2) Get someone to do it for you.
Which is where I might come in, with my
Shop Installation Services.
If you are going to do it yourself
1) Back up your db using the back up option in the shop admin, you will import this later into the db on your new server.
2) Download all the files from your current server maintaining the current directory structure. See if you can compress them using the host's file manager.
3) Set up a new db on the new server and import the backup you took in step 1 using phpmyadmin.
4) Upload all files to your new hosting account maintaining the current directory structure. If you compressed them earlier your new host package neeeds to let you un compress files or else you can uncompress them on your pc and upload them from there.
4) Import your database to your new hosting account using phpmyadmin
5) Change the TWO configure.php files to the correct path of the new servers (hosting and database)
6) Adjust any hard coded items to match the new hosting provider (if any)
7) Depending on how you set up your htaccess protection delete the 2 files .htaccess and htpasswd from your admin directory and reset up the directory password protection using either the Administrator option in the Shop admin or using your Hosts control panel.
8) Redirect your domain to point to the new host's nameservers.
Another way I got from the forum is as follows:-
TRANSFERING OSCOMMERCE TO A NEW SERVER / DOMAIN NAME IN 10 EASY STEPS
** Keep a backup of your old website to be transfered before making any changes **
ON YOUR NEW SERVER
1) Upload a FRESH oscommerce installation, for the version you are using, to your new server.
2) Install a fresh copy of oscommerce (I'll assume everyone here knows how to do that lol)
ON YOUR OLD SERVER
3) IF your admins are htaccess/htpassword protected.. go into your admin of the old site on the old server and turn them all off (admin -> configuration -> administrators)
4) Download everything with an FTP client.
5) Download your mysql database (export).. either take a backup from your admin area, or via phpmyadmin.
6) Go through your oscommerce (the one you want to keep thats being transfered) and delete the .htaccess and .htpassword files in the catalog, includes and admin folders
7) Go through your oscommerce (the one you want to keep thats being transfered) and delete the config files in catalog/includes and catalog/admin/includes folders
Right.. now, when you upload you oscommerce, you will overwrite everything EXCEPT the config files etc (which have been perfectly setup for you and specific for your new server when you did the fresh install earlier... so, go ahead and upload that now.
EDIT YOUR SQL FILE
8) Open up your exported MYSQL database file with a text editor and look for something that will roughly look LIKE:
--
-- Table structure for table `administrators`
--
CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `administrators` (
`id` int(11) NOT NULL auto_increment,
`user_name` varchar(255) character set latin1 collate
latin1_bin NOT NULL,
`user_password` varchar(60) NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (`id`)
) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1
AUTO_INCREMENT=2 ;
--
-- Dumping data for table `administrators`
--
INSERT INTO `administrators` (`id`, `user_name`,
`user_password`) VALUES
(1, 'your admins will be here', 'load of gobledigook for the password');
-- --------------------------------------------------------
DELETE this section from the MYSQL file and SAVE ** But be warned, you're esentially removing any admins & passwords your clients have created so make sure you take note of all of them before deleting.. then recreate them afterwards through your admin panel) **
9) Go to your database via phpmyadmin and go to the import area... For those that have been seeing � after a transfer... is it where your £ sign should be by chance? or other unit of currency? This is usually caused by installation of tables under UTF 8 character set, where certain symbols will not register properly during imports... so when you're importing, change this from UTF-8 to a character set that will be compatable with your currency symbol (whatever that may be for you, google it lol)
10) Once you have it all setup the way you need it, Import your new SQL database file that has the administrators table code removed.. it will overwrite everything EXCEPT the administrators table, preserving the admin login and password details that were created when you did the fresh install earlier... if it moans at you saying table already exists, just delete all your tables EXCEPT the administrators table, then try the import again.. I dont know why preserving the installed administrators table is important, but whenever I didnt do this, the admin logins wouldnt work after transfer.. but doing it this way works perfectly every time, so I'll keep doing it :)
AND THAT'S IT! It may seem like a really rediculous way of doing something that should be extremely simple, editing only 2 files, but the time I can spend doing this way when most of the time is spent watching the FTP client upload and download anyway, and compare that against the time I spend messing around when it doesnt work properly when I just change the two config files... it's this way every time now for me.
Oh, also, I noticed some people complaining about images not showing etc... This is often the case when your directories to your images are whole links directing to the file perhaps on your old server instead of using more reletive links... so I suggest finding where these links are, perhaps on the page in question or in your stylesheet.css, and update the new directories for your images... shouldnt be too difficult to find if you're using firebug or something similar.
Hope that helps a lot of people regarding this topic.
Finally don't forget to move your SSL certificate and emails!!!