Launch WordPress from Localhost

RESOLVED: Check comment below for solution if this happens to you!

Hi,

I've been following the Create a WordPress template tutorials and have begun the last step, Launching a WordPress Site. Unfortunately, this step is not going as easily as the video describes.

I have had my domain and hosting through ASmallOrange, where I've had a small blog created using a free template in place for a few months. After creating a new template using the tutorials, I'm attempting to migrate the new blog to the same URL.

What I've done so far:

1) I Backed Up WordPress files and databases for my old (live) blog AND my new blog (localhost).

2) Using SFTP through FileZilla, I removed the old WordPress installation (wp-content, wp-admin, wp-includes... etc.) from my public_html directory.

3) I Edited the localhost wp-config.php file to define the WP_HOME and WP_SITEURL values to my URL without a sub-directory.

4) Using cPanel, I created a new mySQL database and added a new user to the database.

5) I Edited the localhost wp-config.php file to define the DB_NAME, DB_USER, DB_PASSWORD, and DB_HOST ("localhost") values to the newly created mySQL database.

6) Using cPanel, I created a new FTP account with the directory set to "home/myusername/public_html" and gave them full privileges as instructed during the "Preparing to Manually Install WordPress" tutorial.

7) Using FileZilla, I successfully connected to the new FTP account and found no files or folders at the "/" directory of the server. I then transferred the WordPress installation files from my localhost backup (excluding the .sql database file) onto the "/" server directory.

8) Using PHPmyadmin, I successfully imported the .sql database file from the localhost backup into the newly created mySQL database.

Now here is the problem. When I navigated to my url, the layout was completely broken, and none of the content (posts, media, etc) or settings (plugins, custom fields, etc) were present in my WordPress dashboard. It seemed like the files and database had been successfully migrated, but none of this was being recognized by WordPress.

SO, I tried repeating steps 3-8 above, basically deleting the WordPress installation files using FileZilla, creating new mySQL databases and usernames, editing the wp-config.php and reattempting the FTP transfer and database importing.

Each time I did this (three times), after navigating to the URL in my browser, the install WordPress wizard page displayed, asking me to install WordPress, which I did, again finding the same issues of broken layouts, no content or plugins (after activating the template- it wasn't even activated). Apart from some visual styles loading from my main stylesheet, it appeared as a brand new WordPress installation. No amount of database files dropping/importing helped. Changing the permalink settings in the WP dashboard had no effect either.

What am I doing wrong here?

I am not getting a database connection error and I've triple-checked my wp-config.php settings, database names, passwords and FTP account settings. They all match each time.

Something to note:

-The first time I imported the .sql database files into the new mySQL database, the files all had a "wpWPP_" prefix, but the following attempts all had a "wpwpp_" prefix. I noticed that WHEN the database had files with "wpwpp_" prefixes AND THEN I went through the initial WordPress installation at "url.org/wp-admin/install.php" there were then two sets of files in the database, ones with "wpwpp_" AND ones with "wpWPP_" prefixes. It seems as though WordPress was ignoring my database files and installing it's own. To confirm this, I dropped the new "wpWPP_" files from the table and navigated to my URL, which again had a fresh WordPress installation page.

Please help me identify where I've gone wrong and how I can solve this. I know this is a long post, but it seems to me like all the work I've done designing and developing the new site is for naught. Thank you.