Need help after switching from the Perso plan to Starter

Domains and Hosting
1

Hello everyone,

Following the decision to discontinue the personal hosting plan, which is about to expire, and switch to the starter plan, I’m stuck at the next step:

  • impossible to transfer the site backup via FTP or SFTP to the new hosting space purchased/rented late in the afternoon. FileZilla loops with "Resolving address ftp.clusterxxxx... Connecting to (XXX:xxx:xxx etc...)"
  • I have indeed received messages saying that the new hosting is active, while the personal one is still active as well
  • having been advised by email to change the DNS, I tried it, but there is no change in the interface, so I reverted to the DNS settings linked to the personal hosting
  • via FileZilla I still access the personal space where the site files are (simple HTML, CSS, images, no database)
  • the domain name is active
  • the A and AAAA DNS records still point to the personal hosting that remains active
  • in short, I no longer understand what’s happening.

And to top off this lovely evening, the site is down, showing OVH’s "site not installed" page.

I don’t know what to do anymore. An external brain might be able to walk through each step again.

2

Hello @cv21

First of all, databases are not visible via FILEZILLA.

See the paragraph in my guide: V - Duplication, transfer of WordPress to another hosting

Rename /www/index.html to /www/index_OVH.html

3

Hello @cv21

Note, after a certain number of failed connections, your IP address may be temporarily blocked from the infrastructure (to prevent request spam). Feel free to create a support ticket or contact support to verify this point.

To access your database:

• Click on the reference of your hosting under the "Hosting" section,
• Go to the "Database" tab,
• Click on the three dots to the right of your database to access phpMyAdmin.

For more info: https://help.ovhcloud.com/csm/fr-web-hosting-creating-database?id=kb_article_view&sysparm_article=KB0053070#acceder-a-linterface-phpmyadmin

Here, as Gaston points out, it is very likely that the index.html shortcut is present in your hosting, which prevents your website from displaying. In that case, you need to access your hosting’s FTP to delete it.

Feel free to keep us informed of the situation’s evolution :slight_smile:

Astérix

4

Thank you Gaston,

I was just pointing out that it was a site without a database. I don't use either WordPress or PHP. In short, a bit old‑school HTML, CSS and JavaScript. It was informational. Indeed, for the database there is no link with Filezilla.

Thanks for the tip to rename index to index_OVH. I didn't know that.

However, I haven't tested it because it turned out to be a bit "perverse".

When I focused on the broken site, I let the rest go.

Description of the solution to get the site back: during the manipulations to prepare the switch between hosting versions, I was using Safari. It stayed open for a long time. When I realized the site was no longer responding, I kept trying to check the DNS, check the domain, open and close the OVH interface in vain.

After a while, I looked on another browser; DuckDuckGo displayed the page correctly! Safari still showed "site not installed". I cleared DuckDuckGo's cache, the site remained functional and complete. Relief but confusion. I continued with Firefox. It displayed "site not installed". I cleared its cache, history, restarted the app, and the site was functional. Second relief. I cleared Safari's cache, its history, restarted: still nothing. Then I described the problem to Claude.

He advised me to run the two following terminal commands: sudo dscacheutil -flushcache; sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder (MacOS 26). I looked into it a bit before testing. I tested. Result: the site came back complete and functional on my end. Issue resolved and still puzzling. Probably a cache issue on the browser/computer side.

The person for whom I maintain this modest site had the good idea to forward me an email from OVH support about the steps to prepare the new Starter hosting and let the current personal offer "die". I was thinking: first the FTP transfer, then DNS and domain, then email. I just skimmed it; apparently the step‑by‑step transition does not follow that logic. I'll test tonight.

Once again, thank you. I keep the index test.

5

Hello @cv21

Since you’re blocked by the AI, you can send me your message via the Forum’s Messaging system.

6

Hello,

When you modify a website and also move it elsewhere:

  • the content of web pages can be cached by your browser but also by an intermediate gateway (e.g., CDN, Cloudflare, ...)
  • when you change an IP address, there is a propagation time for this change. You have associated a TTL with your DNS records, and this TTL is expressed in seconds. In principle all intermediate devices (your ISP’s DNS server, your PC, your browser) can keep the received value in cache for TTL seconds.

In preparation for such an IP address migration, it is good practice to lower the TTL a few days beforehand, for example to 300 seconds, or even less. Don't forget to restore a “normal” value after the migration.

7

Hello and thanks everyone.

I have to admit that it wasn’t clever to put, in quotation marks, a word that could be misinterpreted by the AI and a few poorly‑handled command lines already in the second message. For the record, the block was effective, which I understand, but it prevented me from trying to share the information in another way.

To sum up, I’m looking at the site on the personal hosting again and it was still working… I’m learning something.

Submitting a ticket about the inability to transfer via FTP to the future hosting (Starter) didn’t resolve the situation. The FTP/SFTP transfer loops endlessly, as noted in the first post. The reply, again, says that switching to a lower‑tier Starter plan is not allowed.

I’m starting to get frustrated. Either I cancel the Starter order and look elsewhere, or I cancel the Starter request and pay for the personal renewal.

8

Hello @cv21

This would be the first time I've seen FILEZILLA looping.
Maybe a configuration problem with FILEZILLA.

What are the SFTP server addresses:

  • For downloading from the personal account to the PC?
  • Then for uploading from the PC to the Starter?

Nothing prevents indirect transfer via a PC. :grinning_face: