Changing The WordPress Site URL

WordPress stores two addresses inside the database. These determine where your blog files are, and where the main index is. On a normal install, these addresses are the same.

There are two occasions where you will need to access the database to alter one or both of these settings:

1. If you have tried to alter the Blog URL or WordPress URL in Settings, and an error has occurred.
2. If you have moved to a domain/subdomain with a different name.

Edit wp-config.php

It should be possible to fix the site URL using a new feature -

Add these two lines to your wp-config.php, where “example.com” is the NEW location of your site.

define('WP_HOME','http://example.com');
define('WP_SITEURL','http://example.com');

This is not necessarily the best fix, it’s just hardcoding the values into the site itself. You won’t be able to edit them on the General settings page anymore when using this method.

Changing the URL directly in the database

If you know how to access phpMyAdmin on your host, then you can edit these values directly to get you up and running again.

1. Backup your database and save the copy off-site.
2. Login to phpMyAdmin.
3. Click the link to your Databases.
4. A list of your databases will appear. Choose the one that is your WordPress database.
5. All the tables in your database will appear on the screen.
6. From the list, look for wp_options. Note: The table prefix of wp_ may be different if you changed it when installing.
7. Click on the small icon indicated as Browse.
8. A screen will open with a list of the fields within the wp_options table.
9. Under the field option_name, scroll down and look for siteurl.
10. Click the Edit Field icon which usually is found at the far left at the beginning of the row.
11. The Edit Field window will appear.
12. In the input box for option_value, carefully change the URL information to the new address.
13. Verify this is correct and click Go to save the information.
14. You should be returned to your wp-options table.
15. Look for the home field in the table and click Edit Field. Note There are several pages of tables inside wp_options. Look for the > symbol to page through them.
16. In the input box for option_value, carefully change the URL information to the new address.
17. Verify this is correct and click Go to save the information.
18. Delete the folder wp-content/cache (this is a new folder added with WordPress 2.0).
19. That is it.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 28th, 2010 at 11:55 am and is filed under Help. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.