(Updated 3/29/17 4:22 PM)
We are excited to announce the WP-EZ Migration Tool is now available and can be used to copy Gold and free NE1 websites into our new WP-EZ Website Builder!
You may have some questions about migrating websites from NE1 to WP-EZ, so we’ve created this Frequently Asked Questions post to answer your questions.
Q) What is this WP-EZ Website Builder you speak of?
It’s WordPress made easy. We’re pretty excited about it! Read more about the WP-EZ Website Builder here.
Q) How does the migration from NE1 to the WP-EZ Website Builder work?
The migration is a simple 3-step process:
- Migrate. Login to your MyOCC Dashboard, click the “My Websites” option in the left menu, then click the “Migrate to WP-EZ” link to the right of your website address. You will select a theme for your WP-EZ website (which you can change any time you like). Then the migration tool will copy your menu, all of your pages, all of your media and most of modules/plugins from your NE1 website into WP-EZ. Visitors to your website will continue to see your NE1 website.
- Tweak. Edit your WP-EZ to get it looking the way you want it. During this step you will also need to setup the parts of your website that can’t be copied over to WP-EZ automatically. Visitors will continue to see your NE1 site while you tweak your WP-EZ website.
- Activate. When you’re ready to make your WP-EZ website live, login to your MyOCC Dashboard, click the “My Websites” option in the left menu, then click the “Activate WP-EZ” link. This will disable your NE1 website and set up redirects from the NE1 URLs to the WP-EZ URLs of your web pages. When visitors go to your website, they will now see your WP-EZ website.
Q) What parts of my NE1 website will not be automatically copied over to WP-EZ?
We have done everything we can to make the transition from NE1 to WP-EZ as simple as possible. Unfortunately, not everything can be copied over automatically. These are the aspects of NE1 websites that cannot be automatically copied:
- Template/theme. WP-EZ themes are different (and better) than NE1 templates. They are responsive (adjust to the size of the screen) and mobile friendly. So, you’ll have to select a new theme when you migrate to WP-EZ. And keeping with modern web design practices, each website will use one theme throughout rather than having the option to use a different theme on each page.
- Guestbook. We are discontinuing guestbooks. They are an outdated website feature.
- Free Prayer. While we would be happy to pray with you anytime no charge, we are no longer offering the prayer request module/plugin with free sites because of the potential for spam and email integration issues. The WP-EZ prayer plugin is available in Gold, Silver and Bronze sites.
- Calendar, PayPal shopping cart, gallery, poll. These features are available in WP-EZ but the data structure is so different that the migration tool cannot copy the NE1 data to WP-EZ. You can recreate them in WP-EZ. (Note that not all features are included in every hosting package. You can see which features are in each package here.)
- Some embedded audio/video. See below.
- Some HTML. (Added 6/2) If you used the “Paste HTML” features in NE1 to embed a block of HTML code into a page, the migration tool does not copy those HTML blocks into WP-EZ. We are close to completing an upgrade to the migration tool that will do this.
When you migrate your website, the migration tool will tell you which parts of your NE1 site you need to manually recreate and send you this info in an email as well.
Q) How does the migration tool handle audio and video? (added 4/29)
All audio and video files will be copied into the WP-EZ media library. They way they are displayed on WP-EZ pages, may differ.
If you uploaded and embedded mp3 audio files or mp4 video files into your NE1, the migration tool will translate the embed code so they play properly in WP-EZ. You should check pages with mp3 and mp4 files on them and may want to tweak the height, width and other settings.
If you uploaded and embedded other types of audio and video files like .wma, .mwv and .mov files, they will not play in WP-EZ. Note that even in NE1, many of your visitors could not listen to/view these file formats because they require a browser plugin. We strongly recommend you convert all audio and video files to mp3/mp4, then edit the WP-EZ page in which you wish to display them, click the “Media” button and upload/embed them.
If you embedded audio/video from an outside source (e.g. YouTube) using HTML embed code, this should work in WP-EZ just as it did in NE1 because the HTML will be copied into WP-EZ exactly as it was in NE1.
Q) When can I migrate my website? (updated 5/18)
Now. As of May 11, 2016, the migration tool is available to all NE1 sites (Gold, Silver, Bronze & Free).
Q) Why do free sites get to migrate first? (removed 5/18, not important since all sites can migrate now)
Q) Do I have to migrate my NE1 website to WP-EZ? (updated 1/11/17)
Eventually, yes. For security reasons we had to upgrade software on the server where free sites are hosted. NE1 is not compatible with this upgrade, so we had a deadline for free sites to migrate by May 19, then we moved all unmigrated free NE1 sites to WP-EZ on May 26.
For Gold, Silver and Bronze accounts, migration to WP-EZ is voluntary. Note that we cannot update the NE1 software so we cannot fix software-related problems. Over time we anticipate issues with NE1 will develop which we cannot fix, and eventually we will have to shut it down.
(Added 1/11/17) On November 19, 12 NE1 sites were hacked. Since then several others have been hacked. Because of the risk of more hacking and additional time our staff is having to spend restoring sites and removing malware, we announced starting in March is a $5/mo NE1 Usage Fee.
We strongly encourage everyone still using NE1 to migrate as soon as possible to prevent their site from being hacked and avoid the fee.
Q) Will my WP-EZ website have the same web address as my NE1 website?
For free sites, the web address of the homepage will change from something like https://www.ourchurch.com/member/m/mysite/ to http://freesites.ourchurch.com/m/mysite/ After the WP-EZ website has been activated, a visitor who goes to the URL of one of the pages in your old NE1 site will be redirected to the homepage of the new WP-EZ website. (Note, it may take up to an hour after the “Activate” link is clicked before the NE1 URLs redirect to the WP-EZ URL)
For Gold, Silver and Bronze sites, the web address of the homepage will not change. It will continue to be your domain name. The web addresses of the other pages of your website will change slightly, and when WP-EZ is activated, the URL of each page of the NE1 site will automatically redirect to the corresponding page of the WP-EZ website.
Q) Can you show me how to migrate my site?
Sure, watch this video to see a free NE1 website migrated into WP-EZ.
Q) The WP-EZ Website Builder sounds great but I’m not using NE1! Can I build a new site with it?
Absolutely! If you want to build a brand new website with WP-EZ, click the link and select your hosting package..
Q) What if I have questions about WP-EZ or the migration process?
We have online video tutorials to help you with every aspect of WP-EZ. If you have questions you can call us (727-723-2454), email us (support at ourchurch dot com), or create a help desk ticket.
62 Comments
Paul, thanks for your replies to the posts above. I now have another question that's not been addressed in the FAQs. What happens to new content I add to the live NE1 site while I'm in the process of getting the WP-EZ site ready? I assume I'll need to duplicate the new NE1 pages on the WP-EZ site, but what about the new files? If I upload a new file to the cPanel, is it also available on WP-EZ, or will I have to upload the new file on WP-EZ as well?
(I am trying to add the sermons each week, and I know it will take several weeks for me to get the new WP-EZ site ready to go live.)
Also, if we accidentally click the link to go live with WP-EZ before we're ready, is there a way to undo it? Or at least a confirmation screen where we can cancel the command if we aren't ready? (All the links on the OCC dashboard are pretty close together!)
Thank you.
Hello again Jean 🙂 If you add or change content on your NE1 site after initiating the migration, you will have to manually make those changes to your WP-EZ site. And if you were to accidentally activate your WP-EZ website, you can contact our support team and we can de-activate it for you.
So now you are theme based instead of templates? I don't understand…..
Great question Kathleen. The terms "theme" and "template" are interchangeable. With NE1 we referred to them as templates. WordPress has always referred to them as themes, and since WP-EZ is WordPress-based we will refer to them as themes in WP-EZ
I have migrated our site to WPEZ and have fixed most of the broken links and other easy problems.
One problem I have that needs fixed before I activate the site is the blog.
The titles of the blog posts migrated to the new site, but the content of the posts is missing. The blog page only shows the titles of the posts. When you click on a title it goes to a blank page with just the title of the post–no content.
How do I get the content back for the blog?
The blog page is: http://www.newcovenantgj.org/_wpez/daily-disciple…
The first blog post link goes to: http://www.newcovenantgj.org/_wpez/glad-to-see-yo…
The url for the old blog from the NE1 site: http://www.newcovenantgj.org/index.php?p=1_14_Dai…
Any help you could provide will be appreciated.
Thanks,
–Richard Sipes
Hi Richard, thanks for letting us know about the blog issue. I see you submitted a help desk ticket about this. Our support team is looking into it. I'll make sure you get an update this afternoon.
Thanks Paul, they did a good job fixing the blog issue. Now that I have activated the WPEZ site I have a new problem. All the sliders that I built are now blank. All the pictures have been removed from the sliders. The slider numbers and title are still in the slider menu but all the pictures are gone. The slider call-outs are still in the page text but nothing shows because the pictures are no longer tied to the sliders.
I hope I don't have to rebuild the sliders. Is this a one-time problem or will sliders not work with the new site?
Thanks,
Richard
Hi Richard, glad the blog issue was resolved. Thanks for letting us know about the issue with the image slider. I'll let our support team know.
Richard, I believe we've fixed the image sliders on your website. We're looking into whether there is a systemic issue with the image slider during activation that could affect other users.
Will you be adding some instructional videos for the "Themify Builder"? It appears like there are a lot of options here that could improve the site, but I don't see any help for how to use it.
–Richard
Probably not. WP-EZ is intended to be WordPress made easy and the Themify Builder is fairly complex. Our concern is that for every person who uses it successfully, we could have 10 who get frustrated, confused, or break their site.
Have you removed the Themify Builder"? I can no longer see them or find them when I'm editing my pages. Also, I don't see the original reply that you had posted to this comment. I had been thinking of looking up help for WordPress and trying to find how to use these when I get time.
What will happen to C-Panel? Will it go away? If I upload new files to C-Panel to use on the old site before I am ready to activate the new site, do they need to be re-uploaded to the new site? I was trying to fix a page on the new site to duplicate a sermon I recently added to the old site, but when I click "add media," the new sermon file is not there.
Hi Jean, cPanel is not going anywhere.
>>If I upload new files to C-Panel to use on the old site before I am ready to activate the new site, do they need to be re-uploaded to the new site?
Yes. The migration tool copies your NE1 site as it is at that moment into WP-EZ. From that point forward your NE1 and WP-EZ websites are independent from each other. Any changes you make on one will have no effect on the other, therefore if you want to make the same change to both sites it has to be done on both sites.
If cPanel is not going anywhere, why can't I find the new files I've uploaded directly there when I'm on WP-EZ? I don't understand how cPanel works with the new site. Can you please explain more? Thank you.
Currently, for media files to appear in the WP-EZ media library, they have to be uploaded using WP-EZ. If you use FTP or cPanel to upload a file, WP-EZ doesn't know it exists. This is the norm for WordPress.
We do understand some people prefer to use cPanel or FTP to upload files, and some media files may be too large to upload using WP-EZ, so we are developing a solution that will import media files into WP-EZ which have been uploaded by other means. We do not have a timetable for its implementation at this time. So, I would encourage you to upload media files using WP-EZ "Media" functions. If a file is too large to upload through WP-EZ, please create a help desk ticket – https://www.ourchurch.com/support/ – let our support team know the path/filename of the file and we will manually add it to the media library.
Thank you. Meanwhile, I have been able to do some more exploring in File Manager in cPanel, and I found the folders for WP-EZ There were subfolders where you had copied my migrated files and another empty folder for "Uploads". So I'm going to copy my two new sermon files to that folder and see if that will work. If not, I will create a support ticket. Thanks again.
Just in case anyone is reading this, I found out through the support ticket that simply uploading the files to the correct folder does not make them available as "media." The files need to be uploaded when creating the page. I believe they said they are working on our being able to upload via FTP and make the files available.
Hi Jean, yes, we have added the ability to upload large media files via FTP and then import them into WP-EZ. We announced that feature June 2 in this blog post and have a video tutorial showing how to do it: https://blog.ourchurch.com/2016/06/02/urgent-news-down-time-end-of-ne1-new-wp-ez-features/
I have a lot of photos and although I see they've all been transferred to wp/ez site, they're all mixed in and would take a long time to put them back in the new galleries as I had them. I see where someone with the same issue replied that he had downloaded each gallery from NE1 to his desk top in named gallery then uploaded them to wp/ez site in same named gallery. Is it possible to do that and if so how. Thanks
Hi Jack, it's possible to do that. There's no special trick to it. You'd have to go to each gallery in NE1, right click and save each image to your computer. Then follow the instructions to create a gallery in WP-EZ. Here's a link to the video tutorial showing how to create the gallery in WP-EZ- https://www.ourchurch.com/support/index.php?/Knowledgebase/Article/View/625/94/wp-ez-website-builder-gallery—how-to-create-a-photo-gallery
Not knowing what I was doing with this new software, I finalized the website before I had a chance to tweak it. Now what was a very good representation for our Church is an embarrassment. How can I go back and undo what is online and attempt to get it back to what we originally intended. Thanks for any help.
Hi Jim, we want you to feel like your new website is a good representation of your church, so we'd be happy to help. The blog comments aren't ideal for one on one support, so I created a help desk ticket where our support team can assist you.
I'd like to be a beta-test site. My domain is templeofgodwpa . Please let me know the next steps at your earliest convenience!
Regards
Hi Charlotte, the steps are shown in the video that's in the blog post. If you have any specific questions about any of the steps, please let us know.
I started a draft but then made lots of changes to existing website. Can I get rid of the draft and start over?
Yes, our support team will have to reset WP-EZ for you. If you're sure this is what you want to do, please let our support team know at https://www.ourchurch.com/support/ or email: support (at) ourchurch (dot) com and include the URL of your site in the message.