Recently we had a situation where we had to migrate WordPress based website of a client from one server to another which was more advanced (Grid-based) and has different MySQL version.

Normally the followed procedure is to export the MySQL file from the current server and import into the new server. However, there are cases when the versions are different and it creates importing the database file difficult especially when the database is huge.

We discussed with the tech support of the new server for help with the import however, we were told the best would be if we imported it ourselves. We were stuck for help!

Finally, we thought of taking a database back-up of the WordPress website using a plugin. We exported the database using the plugin and tried to import the same on the new server. Voila! It worked!

So, next time you run into a similar issue of MySQL version mismatch, then try exporting the database using different techniques and see which one works.