# Move an existing database into your site > Load a database from your old host into your site's own database: upload an export, or let us take it over SSH. Source: https://veldhost.eu/docs/move-a-database-here Last verified: 2026-11-13 Your application already runs here, but its data is still on the old host. **Move an existing database here** loads that data into your site's own database, by itself, in a few minutes. It works for a MySQL or MariaDB database and for a PostgreSQL one, and it never writes to your old host: we only read from it. ## Before you start - The site is live and has its own database. No database yet? Create one first: see [Your site's databases](https://veldhost.eu/docs/site-databases). - Your export has to come from the **same engine** as the database here: MySQL or MariaDB into MariaDB, PostgreSQL into PostgreSQL. We move a database between hosts; we do not convert it between engines. - You are an owner, admin or developer on the account. - If the database here may hold data you want to keep, take a [backup](https://veldhost.eu/docs/backups-and-restore) first. ## 1. Open the page Open [Sites](https://manage.veldhost.eu/portal/sites) → your site → **Databases** and press **Move an existing database here** under the site's own database. The **Move a database here** page opens, headed with the name of the database it loads into. ## 2. Say where the database is now Under **Where is the database now?** choose one: - **I have an export**: a `.sql` file, a `.sql.gz`, or a `pg_dump` custom-format archive. Choose it under **Your database export**. The page says the largest file it takes. The file goes up in parts, so a slow connection or a large file is fine; leave the tab open until the bar fills. - **Take it from my old host**: we sign in to your old host and run the export there ourselves, so there is nothing to upload. Fill in the **Protocol** (**SFTP (SSH)**, **FTPS (FTP over TLS)** or **FTP (plain)**), **Host**, **Port** and **Username**. Under **Sign in with**, choose **Password**, or **SSH private key (SFTP only)** and paste the key under **Private key**. Then, under **The database on your old host**, its **Database name**, **Database user**, **Database password** and **Database host** (usually `localhost`, as your application's config writes it). The details for your old host are encrypted, handed to the export job once, and deleted the moment it starts. ## 3. Confirm the engine Under **Which engine wrote the database you are moving?** the engine of the database here is already picked. Choosing the other one is refused, with nothing changed. A dump that turns out to be from the other engine is refused the same way. ## 4. Decide what happens to tables already there Under **If DATABASE_NAME already has tables in it**: - **Stop, and change nothing** (the default): we check before we write anything. If there are tables, the migration stops, tells you, and your data stays exactly as it is. - **Replace everything in this database**: every table in the database here is dropped and your export is loaded over it. > **Caution:** **Replace everything in this database** deletes the data that is in the database now, and there is no undo. To choose it, type the database's name where the form asks. ## 5. Start it Press **Start the migration**. The page follows along: **Receiving your dump**, **Queued**, then **Moving your database in**, with the step it is on and a **Technical log**. You can leave the page while it loads; it carries on without you. Until it starts loading, you can press **Cancel this migration**; nothing in your database changes. Once it is loading it cannot be cancelled. When it is done, the page says **Your data is in DATABASE_NAME.** Whatever already points at that database, your site included, reads the new data straight away: there is nothing to switch over. **Open it in Databases** to look at the tables. ## If it fails A migration that stops part-way is not rolled back, so the database may now hold part of your export. To try again, start again and choose **Replace everything in this database**, so the partial load is cleared first. If it stops the same way, send us the technical log from the page and we finish the move for you. ## When the page says no The page explains why a database cannot take a migration yet: - The site, or its database, is still being set up. The page opens as soon as it is ready. - It is a [warehouse](https://veldhost.eu/docs/warehouse) database. Those are filled from data files, not from a database dump. - We do not hold the password for the database. Rotate its password on the site's **Databases** tab and try again. - The site is managed for you; the page offers our [assisted migration](https://veldhost.eu/docs/moving-to-veldhost) instead. ## Related - [Moving your site or database to veldhost](https://veldhost.eu/docs/moving-to-veldhost) - [Your site's databases](https://veldhost.eu/docs/site-databases) - [Databases: browse and query your site data](https://veldhost.eu/docs/databases) - [Move an existing site to veldhost](https://veldhost.eu/docs/move-an-existing-site)