Error Message: But it says – Because your install is not new, the sites in your WordPress network must use sub-domains

Ok, first of all sorry for the largest title in blogging history. But I had to do it. I just had to – so that other fellow web builders out there may find this in their late-night, bleary-eyed desperation. Know that salvation is here, what you are trying to do is POSSIBLE.

Let’s look at the checklist, shall we?

• Want to use the new Network feature for WordPress 3.0?
• Have Godaddy as your host?

So, you want to migrate a previous WordPress installation to a new server. Ok. And you think, what the heck, let’s make that blog now a new WordPress network. This is the new terminology given to WordPress Mu – which has merged with WordPress (standard) to become the same project. Sounds great, right? Well, not so fast…It is a royal pain in the – well, you know. You’ve tried it. I’ve got a solution so let’s get to it.

First of all, the error message. It should read something like this:

Because your install is not new, the sites in your WordPress network must use sub-domains…

What this means is that basically, your install is NOT less than 30 days old (see Alternative Messages > Sub-domain Install). But even that isn’t enough. What it really means is that your previous install was a WordPress standard install and NOT a WordPress Mu install. So, if you are trying to upgrade your previous WordPress standard install to 3.0, no problem. But, if you are trying to upgrade and want to use the new network feature of version 3.0, you are going to have a bit of a problem.

Next thing on the checklist – you are using Godaddy as your host. Why is this a problem? Basically, you can install the WordPress 3.0 network feature to use either a sub-directory or a sub-domain for your new “sites” (previously known as blogs). Now, most everyone prefers a sub-directory (yoursite.com/subdirectory) as opposed to a sub-domain (subdomain.yoursite.com). One of the main reasons has to do with SEO indexing, but I digress. It’s YOUR SITE and you should be able to do what you want. Godaddy only allows you to use subdirectories, so if you wanted to use sub-domains, you can’t.

Even more of a problem is that when you try and upgrade your blog to use WordPress 3.0, you may not have a choice. If you can’t choose but are forced to do sub-domains, what then? Abandon all hope? No!

One of the suggestions that seems to work for some you can find here. It didn’t work for me because the problem seemed to extend to beyond simply changing the config file. (There is a plugin suggested to go along with this that would rid your install of the /blog listing.)

Here are Godaddy’s official instructions – they are seemingly based on a fresh install of WordPress 3.0. But if you are not doing a fresh install, but a migration, this won’t be sufficient either.

What I suggest then is to do an install of the old version of WordPress Mu – version 2.9.2. (You can get the zip file of 2.9.2 WPMU here.) Unzip it, and upload the files to your new directory. Once you have the install, navigate to the directory and fill in the necessary SQL database info. MAKE SURE that you choose the sub-directory option!! Also, I recommend starting with a clean database – don’t preload it or try to attach a fresh install to an old database. It could work, but it just seems to be creating more problems.

Go back to your old site and do an export of the data from your site’s backend (look under Administration > Tools > Export). After you have that, import that into your fresh install of WordPress MU 2.9.2 (Administration > Tools > Import). Voila, you have a WordPress MU version of your old WordPress version!

From here, you have a few options. (Now, this isn’t exhaustive, I am just giving you the basic framework here, not a step by step.)

1. Keep your current WordPress MU 2.9.2
2. Or upgrade to WordPress 3.0. (Click here for a step by step upgrade)

I have upgraded and initially there were no problems, but once I did some final configurations after the upgrade, I lost the ability to log in to the admin control panel. I still haven’t found a solution quite yet.

Now, if for some reason you try to upgrade and it doesn’t work, clear the database and remove the files and try again. Most importantly, make sure you have removed the wp-config.php file and the htaccess. file.

If you simply want to roll back your install of the network in 3.0, here are the specific tables for the WordPresss 3.0 install.

Well, I am tired after a long day of junk. Hit me up if you find anything else. Going to try another site, tomorrow.

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