Move site to different location on same server

Question

I've been developing a site within a "dev" folder directly under my root and kept it offline so no one could stumble upon it accidentally. Now I am preparing to go public and am having some issues.

I downloaded my dev folder to my local site via ftp and then uploaded its contents to the root folder of my remote site. All of the files seem to be in place and the index page looks just fine but the links are still pointing back to the dev site (ie. when I click on the "About Us" link from mysite.com it takes me to mysite.com/dev/aboutus instead of mysite.com/aboutus).

Is there something I need to change in my Joomla! settings somewhere? I've combed through the Global Configuration and updated the location of both my log folder and temp folder, not sure what else I need to update though.

Answer 1

The first thing that comes to my mind is to check your .htaccess file. Look for a line similar to this:

RewriteBase /dev

It might be redirecting your links to the /dev subfolder. This would usually give a 404 error, but if the folder exists, it'll load your development site. Change to

RewriteBase /

If that doesn't solve your problem, check the configuration.php file for any references to your development site. Make sure public $live_site is empty or contains your live site URL.

I would highly recommend using Akeeba Backup together with Akeeba Kickstart (both free) whenever you want to move or backup your Joomla sites. It will create a single file with your entire website AND database, and includes a convenient installation script to get everything correctly set up on your new location.