I changed the site URL in settings > general of Wordpress self hosted site and the site crashed

By mistake I changed the site URL of a Wordpress self hosted site hosted in Godaddy. This is a seemingly simple error. But it may cause a damage that may be extremely difficult to repair. In my case, I never recovered the same site.

Wordpress users must be highly careful in making this simple change. Wordpress should educate the users about this.

In the settings >  general section, there are two fields named "WordPress address (URL)" and "Site address (URL)". These are also known as the "Home" and "Site URL."

"WordPress address (URL)" is the folder you have hosted your site. eg: http://yourprimarydomain.com/seconddomain

"Site address (URL)" is the way you want the visitors come to your site. It can be a different URL. eg: http://seconddomain.com

Important: There are no "www." sub domain in the URL.

You may tend to change these site URLs by adding "www." or any other way. The error I committed was changing the "WordPress address (URL)" also to http://seconddomain.com

After saving, the site immediately crashed and never recovered.

I found a nice guide from Wordpress Codex and followed the following instructions to repair the site:

My site was hosted in Godaddy and it was not difficult to find phpMyAdmin. Path was My Account > Web Hosting > Launch

In the Control Panel, under the Hosting tab, in the right column named Account Snapshot, click MySQL Databases. You may find phpMyAdmin button in the pop up window towards the right hand side.

I followed the following instructions of the Wordpress and repaired the damage.

Changing the URL directly in the database

If you know how to access phpMyAdmin on your host, then you can edit these values directly to get you up and running again.

1. Backup your database and save the copy off-site.
2. Login to phpMyAdmin.
3. Click the link to your Databases.
4. A list of your databases will appear. Choose the one that is your WordPress database.
5. All the tables in your database will appear on the screen.
6. From the list, look for wp_options. Note: The table prefix of wp_ may be different if you changed it when installing.
7. Click on the small icon indicated as Browse.
8. A screen will open with a list of the fields within the wp_options table.
9. Under the field option_name, scroll down and look for siteurl.
10. Click the Edit Field icon which usually is found at the far left at the beginning of the row.
11. The Edit Field window will appear.
12. In the input box for option_value, carefully change the URL information to the new address.
13. Verify this is correct and click Go to save the information.
14. You should be returned to your wp_options table.
15. Look for the home field in the table and click Edit Field. Note There are several pages of tables inside wp_options. Look for the > symbol to page through them.
16. In the input box for option_value, carefully change the URL information to the new address.
17. Verify this is correct and click Go to save the information

 I expected the site would be back normal after this but unfortunately not.

Frustrated, I contacted the Godaddy Support and submitted a ticket.

This is their response.

Thank you for contacting Online Support. I understand that you cannot upload the site and you get a 500 error. By default, our Windows hosting servers display a generic error when any .NET application generates an exception. We display a generic error because the detailed error messages allow a malicious user to obtain sensitive information.

To troubleshoot the error, you can modify your web.config file and specify that a custom error message displays. A custom error message helps you to locate the specific code that is causing the issue.

CAUTION: The code samples we provide below do not constitute a complete web.config file. Do not replace your existing web.config file with the code we provide. Before changing your web.config file, we recommend creating a backup.
Displaying Custom Error Messages / Enabling Detailed Errors on IIS 6

Use the sample code below to display custom error messages on IIS 6:


Displaying Custom Error Messages / Enabling Detailed Errors on IIS 7

Use the sample code below to display custom error messages on IIS 7:

When you receive a 500 error this is typically due to a problem within the web.config or .htaccess file. Please check all coding in these files to ensure that there are no issues.

I am able to connect to your FTP account at this time. Please disable any firewall or similar software running on your machine, as it may mistake FTP activity for malicious behavior and block it accordingly. If that does not help, try using a different FTP program. If you use Windows, you can try to connect using Internet Explorer as well by typing ftp://hostingusername@yourdomain.com where "hostingusername" is replaced by your hosting (FTP) username, and "yourdomain.com" by your domain name. It will prompt you for a password, then should connect you to your account. If none of those options work, please access the account via FTP on another computer, ideally one connected to the Internet at another location.

If you are still not able to connect to the FTP, please indicate the error message (and if possible the FTP session log showing the commands used to connect). This will help us diagnose any issue you may be having with the FTP account. I apologize for any inconvenience.

Please let us know if you have any further questions, comments, or concerns by replying to this email. Our service departments and telephone lines are open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to accommodate your needs anytime.

Sincerely,
Michael P.
Online Support Team

Frankly, it does not seem a simple explanation. However, I tried the steps he suggested but not succeeded. The instructions seemed inadequate.

Since the site was new and I had backups, after hours of labor, I decided to uninstall the Wordpress application and reinstall it.

Do not trust your hosting companies in complex situations like this.

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