Method

Log into the administrator account.

Click on ‘Admin’ in the menu bar. (The ‘Admin’ option in the menu bar is only visible when logged in as an administrator.)

After entering the admin interface, find ‘Configuration’ —> ‘Site’ on the left sidebar.

In the ‘Site’ management page, find the ‘Relocate Node’ tab.

Remember this command:

(Friendica directory)# bin/console relocate https://newdomain.com

I can’t guarantee this command will remain the same in all versions, so I encourage readers to check the command as per the steps above when needed.

Next, point the directory where Friendica is stored on the server to the new domain name. This part is not detailed in this article, please refer to online tutorials on changing site domain names and proceed according to your situation.

Use SSH to enter the server’s command line (this operation is not detailed). Then navigate to the website directory of the new domain. Suppose the new domain of the site is sanguok.com, run:

bin/console relocate https://sanguok.com

The website address recorded in the database will be updated accordingly.

Finally, remember to manually modify the website address in the site configuration file!

Further Explanation

Many services in the Fediverse warn operators not to change instances (sites) at will because a user’s federated identity consists of the following parts:

@username@instancename

For example:

@sanguok@sanguok.com

This is the federated identity of this blog. Readers can subscribe to updates from this blog through a Fediverse reader (such as the Mastodon reader).

However, once the domain name changes, even though the new domain name and the old domain name clearly belong to the same user, for many federated services, they are considered as two completely different individuals. That is:

@sanguok@old.domain

versus

@sanguok@new.domain

These are not the same person. This goes against intuition, but it is the reality. The complications in information exchange, subscriptions, and other aspects caused by easily changing domain names can be easily imagined.

Therefore, when creating a new Friendica site and filling in the domain name, the system also warns site operators that domain names cannot be easily changed.