Transfer First … Cancel Second

lsw-x

Just a little tip. . .

If you host your website with a hosting provider and you want to transfer to a new hosting provider – please do the following, in order:

  1. Back up your data and transfer from your current host to your new host
  2. Cancel your hosting account with your current host.

If you do not do it in that order – you run the risk of losing your data. If you cancel first and then try to transfer after – you may find that your current web host did exactly what you asked them to do – – canceled your account, in which case you have lost your access to all of your data.

Hypothetically speaking, filing a complaint with the FTC is not going to change the fact that the web hosting provider canceled your account when you asked them to. Your host may still have a backup of your site sitting on their server . . maybe, if you are lucky. If they do, check their terms and find out if you can obtain that back up – – either for free, or for a service charge.

Either way – when you request cancellation – the account generally gets canceled. I know that sounds very confusing – but there it is.

This has been a public service announcement from your friendly neighborhood web hosting provider

5 thoughts on “Transfer First … Cancel Second”

  1. LOL… Do I get the impression that Miss Sabin-Wilson may have personally made the screw-up of which she writes? 😉

    Being a host myself (old company and new one), I can totally appreciate the business of backing up before a transfer! I’ve dealt with so many people who didn’t do it – and ended losing chunks of their sites!

  2. The first time I moved my site, I downloaded a fll backup (or just HTP’ed it all down home) before uploading the site to the new host. In the end it turned out that in the process I missed a few files, and I wasn’t willing to re-transfer it all again, so I just started over.

    Fortunately, my site wasn’t really worth anything at that point, so scrapping it all was actually a pretty good choice.

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