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How To Fix A Broken WordPress Installation

Posted by MatthewNeer on Feb 3, 2010 | View Comments

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You ever install a new WordPress site only to see the theme displayed as plain HTML? Doesn’t that just bug the crap out of you? I know it does when it happens to me. That’s why I’m putting together this post to help you walk through fixing your broken WordPress installation and make it work once again.

A little side note, I am going to be doing this tutorial ASSuming that you use GoDaddy. If you don’t the steps will probably be similar, but not exact. I highly recommend using GoDaddy.

Here’s the breakdown: If you do something that changes the URL of your WordPress site, you need to update the database with the new URL for your site to work properly.

Have you:

Changed the domain on the hosting account on which WordPress was installed?
Moved the WordPress installation directory?

In both of these cases you need to fix your installation by updating the WordPress database to point the new location of your WordPress installation.

TIP: If you are thinking about moving your WordPress installation, but haven’t done it yet, you should do it the correct way. See the Moving WordPress Within Your Site section in the Moving WordPress article on wordpress.org.

How To Fix Your WordPress Installation

NOTE: Before following this procedure, we recommend backing up your database. For more information on how to backup your database with GoDaddy, see Backing Up and Restoring MySQL or MSSQL Databases.

Log in to your Account Manager.
In the My Products section, select Hosting.
Next to the hosting account you want to modify, click Manage Account.
In the Databases section of the Hosting Control Center, click MySQL.
Next to the WordPress database, click Manage via phpMyAdmin.
Enter the username and password for your database.
On the phpMyAdmin page, click the SQL icon in the upper left.
Enter the following:

UPDATE wp_options
SET option_value = ‘http://www.newlocation.com’
WHERE option_value = ‘http://www.oldlocation.com’

where http://www.newlocation.com is your site’s new address and http://www.oldlocation.com is your site’s old address.
Click Go.

After clicking Go, the database updates. Your site should resolve normally.

If you installed WordPress with Hosting Connections, the links in Hosting Connection still point to your old installation. As long as you update the links in the database, however, you can continue to upgrade your WordPress installation through Hosting Connections.

I hope this helped you out. Please leave your comments below if you have any further questions…

If you enjoyed this post, you might also like my eBook Article Cannon

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Panda Marketer

Initially my SQL said I had a syntax error, but luckily I figured out that I just have to "browse" to the wp_option table, edit it, and change the siteurl value manually.
mcinpat

This is saving me a big headache! Matthew, Thanks for the tip. I'll admit, the picture brought me in and then I got something I really needed. Thanks for the positive bait and switch.
brucebackman

Great picture Matthew! Anyhow…I love your help on all things Wordpress…thanks my friend!
Phil Jackson

Definitely helpful. I've scrambled all over the place to find solutions on Wordpress problems. And they always seem to crop up when I'm in a hurry!