Transfer Wordpress from own domain+hosting to Altervista - no effects

[raysresearch]

Hello everyone,

I would be grateful if you could give me a clue on what's going on.

Export WordPress to .XML → import into Altervista WP → KABAGAZAGABABOOOOOOM!!!!��������������

Situation:
I have a mywebsite.com domain with Linux Hosting and WordPress, a small database, several plugins, paid template, highly customized.
I intend to transfer everything to mywebsite.altervista.org WordPress.

I followed the indicated procedures:
1) Went into mywebsite.com WordPress admin panel, exported the whole thing to .XML
2) Went into mywebsite.altervista.org WP admin panel, imported the .XML
3) Waited a fairly long time, until I received the email and saw on screen that the import was completed, no error messages

Problem:

1) I Tried to visit mywebsite.altervista.org and found nothing. There's still the standard "mywebsite's blog" page
2) I checked the WP panel on altervista and none of the plugins were imported/installed
3) I checked the media: only 1 was imported, a gray square. It says "viewing 1 of 82 media", but there's no trace of the other 81

It did import the comments though.

I thought it was an easy-peasy process: export / import → et voila', the website is transferred. Instead, I'm smelling a nightmare ahead of me...

I can't even imagine what happened to the database...

Any clue is greatly appreciated! Thanks so much!

UPDATE: had to redo almost everything manually. Thank God the website was small, I can't imagine when companies with huge websites need to move them how can they do if there is no smooth automatic transfer method! Absolutely utterly incredible!

Anyway, even some links were broken. Most of the links (and intra-website links on some pages) were corrected, but some were left with the original www.mywebsite.com URL. Strange. I'd have guessed either all the links were rewritten or none of them. Not just about 80% of them were corrected and 20% of them were not. Any clue why?
Thanks again.

[alemoppo]

Hello, could you please send the .xml file via email? (I have sent you the email address via Private Message).

Bye!

[raysresearch]

Hello Alemoppo,

I sent the .XML file to the email you indicated.

Also, where can I find / manage the database?

Thank you.

Kind regards.

[alemoppo]

Thank you.
In a WordPress account, you can't directly manage the database, but you can manage it using some plugins.

Bye!

[raysresearch]

Okay thanks again!
Have a nice day

[alemoppo]

The WordPress import procedure only imports content, not plugins. Because of some plugins, it's difficult to fix all the originary links.
I recommend to use the native block editor to avoid issues during export and avoiding third-party builders.

Bye!