After a migration: final checks and a rollback plan

Before you start

• A completed and checked migration
• The DNS values you saved before the move

Applies to: Cloud Hosting, WordPress Cloud, Managed WordPress, Website migration.

Steps

1. Change DNS as agreed

   Use the exact values FoxFolio gave you in the ticket. A nameserver change usually takes effect within several hours and can take up to 24–48 hours everywhere; record changes inside an existing zone are usually quicker.

2. Check the site

   Once your domain loads from FoxFolio Cloud, open the key pages, submit a test form, and sign in to your site’s administration area. Check a few pages from mobile data as well as your office network, because different networks update at different times.

3. Check HTTPS

   The free SSL certificate can only be issued after the domain points to FoxFolio Cloud. If the padlock is missing after a few hours, see Turn on the free SSL certificate.

4. Check email

   Send a message to each moved mailbox from an outside address, and send one out. Set up your mail apps with the new settings. Ask FoxFolio to run the final mail copy so messages that reached the old server during the switch are brought across.

5. Keep the rollback ready

   Until every check passes, keep the old hosting account paid and running, and keep the saved DNS values. If something serious goes wrong, putting the old DNS values back returns visitors to the old site while the issue is fixed.

6. Close the old account last

   When the site and email have worked for a few days and the final mail copy is done, download any last files you want from the old host and cancel it there.

Troubleshooting and common mistakes

Some people see the new site and others see the old one.

That is normal while DNS changes spread. See How long DNS changes take to work.

Email stopped arriving after the switch.

Check the MX records point to the values FoxFolio gave you, and that any outside mail provider’s records were added back. See Fix email that is not sending or receiving.

You rolled back DNS and want to try again.

Tell FoxFolio in the ticket. Changes made on the old site since the first copy may need another copy before switching again.

Related guides

• How a migration is checked before DNS changesFoxFolio copies your site to your new hosting while the old site keeps running, then checks the copy on a preview address before anything public changes. You review it too. Only after both checks pass do you change DNS. A typical website copy takes about 30 minutes and can take up to about three hours; a 1–2 GB mailbox usually takes about 30 minutes.
• How long DNS changes take to workChanges to DNS records in a FoxFolio Cloud control panel reach FoxFolio Cloud’s DNS servers within about a minute, but other networks may keep the old answer for up to the record’s time-to-live, usually about an hour. Nameserver changes at a registrar are slower: usually a few hours and occasionally up to 48 hours.
• Turn on the free SSL certificate included with hostingEligible FoxFolio Cloud hosting includes a free wildcard SSL certificate that covers your domain and its subdomains and renews itself. It needs your domain to use FoxFolio Cloud nameservers, ns1.stackdns.com to ns4.stackdns.com. If it is not already on, open SSL/TLS in the control panel and choose Activate Free SSL; allow up to 30 minutes for it to take effect.
• Fix email that is not sending or receivingFirst test in webmail. If webmail works, the problem is in your mail app: use imap.stackmail.com port 993 and smtp.stackmail.com port 465 or 587 with your full email address as the username. If webmail also fails, check that the mailbox is not full, that the domain’s MX record points to mx.stackmail.com, and that sending limits have not been reached.