How To Install WordPress Manually Using FTP
In this tutorial you will learn how to install WordPress manually on your domain using FTP (File Transfer Protocol).
If you don’t know how to use FTP (File Transfer Protocol) to transfer files between your computer and your server, please refer to our FTP tutorial.
If you don’t already have an FTP client, we recommend using FileZilla (desktop application), or FireFTP (browser application for Firefox users).
Installing A WordPress Site On Your Domain Using FTP
If your hosting account does not have cPanel, you can install WordPress manually using FTP. This tutorial will show you how.
Watch the video below, then follow the step-by-step tutorial to learn how to install WordPress manually using FTP.
Tutorial: Installing WordPress Manually Using FTP
There are 5 steps involved in the process of installing WordPress manually:
1 – Set Up A MySQL Database
2 – Download WordPress
3 – Edit “wp-config.php” file
4 – Upload files to your server using FTP
5 – Complete the WordPress installation
Step 1: Set Up A MySQL Database
Log into your cPanel account …
Scroll down to the “Databases” section of your cPanel administration area and click on “MySQL Database Wizard” …
Create a database name and click “Next Step” …
Note: In the above screenshot example, the prefix “wrdpress” is the domain username and “demo” is the database name. Your configuration will show a different domain username prefix.
Copy the entire “prefix_databasename” string into a plain text file. You will need it later on during the installation process.
Next, create a username, and enter and verify a password (aim for a score of “very strong” – use the password generator if you need to), then click “Create User” …
In the above screenshot example, the username is “demo1″.
In the next screen, do the following:
- Copy the “User”, “Database” and “Password” details to a plain text file and save it to your hard drive. You will need these later.
- Select the “ALL PRIVILEGES” checkbox
- After completing the above tasks, click on “Next Step” to proceed …
You have just successfully created a MySQL database …
Close the window and log out of you cPanel administration area.
You have now completed Step #1 of the manual installation process.
Let’s move on to Step #2 …
Step 2: Download WordPress
Go to www.WordPress.org to download the latest version of WordPress …
Click on “Download WordPress” and save the latest version to your hard drive …
We recommend creating a folder on your hard drive for all your WordPress files (e.g. plugins, themes and older versions of WordPress just in case you experience any problems and have to reinstall your previous WP version) …
Once the .zip file containing the WordPress application has downloaded to your hard drive, extract the file to your WordPress folder …
You have completed Step #2 of the manual installation process.
Let’s move on to Step #3 …
Step 3: Edit The “wp-config.php” file
Locate the “wp-config-sample.php” file inside the folder containing the WordPress installation files you have extracted …
Rename this file to “wp-config.php” by clicking on the file name and deleting “-sample” …
Open the file using a plain text editor like Notepad …
You will need to make the following changes to the “wp-config.php” file:
- Replace ‘DB_NAME’ > ‘database_name_here‘ with your database name
- Replace ‘DB_USER’ > ‘username_here‘ with your database user
- Replace ‘DB_PASSWORD’ > ‘password_here‘ with your database password
Select File > Save and save your file …
*** Important ***
In most server configurations, you can just leave ‘DB_HOST’ value as ‘localhost‘, unless your web hosting company advises you to use a different value for this field.
Also, it’s very important that you enter the new values correctly inside the single quotation marks. Entering the wrong value or deleting one of the quotation marks when you edit this section will lead to errors in your WordPress installation.
Save the file. We’re not done yet. You still need to insert the Authentication Unique Keys and Salts. These are security codes that are unique to every WordPress site.
Scroll down the file until you find the Authentication Unique Keys and Salts section. Copy the URL shown in the file and paste it into your browser to visit the WordPress secret-key service generator site and get your unique authentication keys …
Select and copy the entire selection as shown in the screenshot below to your clipboard …
Go back to your “wp-config.php” file. Select the entire section shown in the screenshot below and replace it with the contents of your clipboard …
Once you have pasted the new values into your file, check to make sure that everything is ok, then resave and close the “wp-config.php” file …
You have now completed Step #3 of the manual installation process.
Let’s move on now to Step #4 …
Step 4: Upload Files To Your Server Using FTP
If you don’t know how to use FTP (File Transfer Protocol), please refer to our FTP tutorial.
Open up your FTP application …
Create an account for your domain and connect to your server …
In the “local drive” window pane of your FTP application open the folder where you have extracted all of your WordPress installation files and locate the directory on your server where you plan to install WordPress into …
Upload all the WordPress installation files from your hard drive to your server using FTP …
The file transfer will take a few minutes to complete. After all files have been uploaded to your server, close your FTP application …
You have completed Step #4 of the manual installation process.
Let’s move on to Step #5 – the final step of the manual installation process …
Step 5: Complete Your WordPress Installation
Open your internet browser and type in the location of your installation (i.e. the URL that will lead to the location on your domain where you have installed WordPress).
If all the previous steps have been completed successfully, you should see a screen similar to the one shown below …
If a screen like the one seen in the example above is not showing, go back and check to make sure that you have entered all the details correctly into your wp-config.php file.
Enter the following information:
- Site Title – What you want your site to display. You can change this later.
- Username – You cannot change this easily, so please choose your username carefully.
- Password - Aim to get at least a “Strong” rating for your password. Write it down and save it for your records. If you lose this password you will need to reset it
- Email Address
- Tick “Allow my blog to appear in search engines like Google and Technorati“
Once you have entered all of the fields click “Install WordPress” to complete the installation process …
Once your installation is set up, you should see a screen similar to the one shown below.
Click “Log In” to continue …
In the WordPress login screen, enter your username and password, then click “Log In” …
You should see your WordPress admin screen …
Congratulations … You have successfully installed WordPress manually using FTP!
Related FTP Tutorial
To learn how to make files writable on your server using FTP, see this tutorial: Setting Server File Permissions