Move Wordpress Admin to Subdirectory | Dale Greve

Move WordPress Admin to Subdirectory

When building a new WordPress setup, the first step I take to organize and add an extra level of security (by obscurity) is to move the admin into a sub directory.

  1. First create folder where you want to install WordPress. In this tutorial, we will use /mywebsite.
  2. Now, at WordPress dashboard, navigate to Settings >> General Settings.
  3. n the box WordPress address (URL), change the address to new location of your main WordPress core files. For example: http://example.com/mywebsite.


    In the box Site address (URL), change the address to the root directory URL. For example: http://example.com and click on Save Changes.


    Move your WordPress core files to the new location (/mywebsite folder).


    Now COPY (DO NOT MOVE) index.php and .htaccess files from /mywebsite folder to root directory, i.e. wwwroot/public_html.


    By default, .htaccess file would be invisible. Hence, set FTP client to show hidden files. If you are using cPanel file manager, check the show hidden files checkbox while you access file manager. Additionally, if you do not use pretty permalinks, then you may not have a .htaccess file.
  1. Now, open root directory’s index.php file in a text editor. Replace line

    require( dirname( __FILE__ ) . ‘/wp-blog-header.php’ );
    with following line, placing your subdirectory name as follows.

    require( dirname( __FILE__ ) . ‘/mywebsite/wp-blog-header.php’ );
  2. Browse and login to new WordPress dashboard. http://example.com/mywebsite/wp-admin/

  3. If you have set up Permalinks, update the Permalink structure. At WordPress dashboard, navigate to Settings >> Permalinks Settingscheck the checkbox of permalinks setting you set previously and save the changes.