Migrate a site from Bluehost using SSH

This guide will show you how to securely share access to your site using SSH, so that you can migrate your site from Bluehost to WordPress.com.

Secure Shell (SSH) is a secure way for us to connect to your current host and copy your site safely. We use it to transfer a copy of your site’s content, media, plugins, themes, and database over an encrypted connection. Your existing site will stay online and unchanged during the migration, so visitors won’t notice any disruption until you’re ready to update your domain name to the newly-migrated site.

To find the SSH details for your site, take the following steps:

1. Log into your Bluehost account and click on Hosting on the left side.
2. Look for the IP Address shown in your hosting panel:

3. Copy the IP address here and paste it as your server address on WordPress.com:

4. Leave 22 in the Port box.
5. Click the “Verify server address” button.

In a few moments, we’ll validate if the details are correct for what we need to migrate a copy of your site to WordPress.com. If the details cannot be validated, please double check you have pasted the correct information or contact your host for support in obtaining the correct details.

Next, you’ll need to share your SSH details to grant WordPress.com secure access to your site to begin the migration. Follow the steps based on your server type:

Shared ServerVPS and Dedicated Servers

1. In the “Share SSH access” section on WordPress.com, choose the SSH key authentication method.
2. Enter your Bluehost cPanel username, located in your Bluehost SSH Management page.

3. Click the copy icon in the top right to copy the public key to your computer’s clipboard:

4. In your Bluehost account, click on Hosting on the left side.
5. Click the CPANEL button:

5. In the Security panel, click on the “SSH Access” option:

6. Click the “Manage SSH Keys” button.
7. Click the “Import Key” button and fill in the following details:
   • Name: Enter the default id_dsa name.
   • Private Key: Leave this field empty.
   • Passphrase: Leave this field empty.
   • Public Key: Paste the public key you copied from WordPress.com in step 2.
8. Click the Import button.
9. Once the key has been imported, return to WordPress.com and click the Continue button.

1. In your Bluehost account, click on Hosting on the left side.
2. For your server, click the WHM button, which stands for “Web Host Manager.”
3. Navigate to “List Accounts” under the “Account Information” section.
4. Locate the domain of the site you want to migrate. The username will be listed in the table row here.
5. To obtain a password, you will need to reset it by clicking the + icon and selecting “Change Password.”
6. Enter a new password and save the change.
7. Enter the username and new password into the appropriate boxes on WordPress.com: