2. Save your files

* Enter the Themes folder of your blog in the old server using your FTP client or the File Manager of your host and delete all the themes you are not going to use in the new installation. Clear the Cache of your blog.

Download to your PC the whole wp-content folder, which contains your themes, your uploaded media files, etc. Download also any other file or folder that does not belong to the core system of WordPress, but was created and uploaded by you in any folder of your old site. Make sure you won’t forget anything.

Do NOT download the Plugins folder from your old wp-content folder. Plugins may contain a lot of files so that downloading and uploading them again in the new server is time consuming. You don’t have to do this, because there is a speedier way to move your plugins, without even making a backup! Just keep reading…

3) Restore your blog to its new home

a. Install your plugins

* FTP to the new home of your blog the files you downloaded from the old location, the wp-content folder, etc., replacing anything with the same name that may already exist in the new server.

* Use your temporary (alias) url to enter the dashboard of your blog and install Multi Plugin Installer, a plugin that is able to bulk install any number of plugins if you feed it with just their names.

Open the admin page of Multi Plugin Installer; in the relevant textbox paste the names of your plugins (they are included in the list that you saved in your backup above.) Choose to install them all, but without activation. Multi Plugin Installer establishes a connection to the WordPress official pages, downloads and installs the plugins one by one. If you have some heavy plugins, containing a lot of files, such as TubePress, you may face connection problems, in which case just install these plugins separately.

After Multi Plugin Installer finishes, it displays a report. Make sure all your plugins are downloaded and installed. It may happen that plugins you use for some time, they are now removed from the WordPress official pages because their development stopped. Such plugins, assuming they are still working for you, must be saved manually from your old server and uploaded / installed on your new server; you can use for them FTP or your dashboard’s New Plugin > Upload feature to get them from your PC.