HowTo: Transfer your Jetpack connection from your WordPress.com site to your self-hosted WordPress

Whenever I’m transferring a WordPress.com site to a self-hosted install, I’m always forgetting the process for transferring the Jetpack connection. So, I’m posting this one as a future “note to self”, and perhaps you’ll find this helpful too. As relayed to me by a WordPress.com Happiness Engineer, here’s the process:

On both WordPress.com sites, switch the primary domain to the site’s default address, listed below the custom domain in the Upgrades > Domains page. You can do this by selecting the 3-dot button to the right of the default domain, and selecting “Make primary site address”.

Set up your mapping on the custom domains to the self-hosted site.

Connect Jetpack on the self-hosted site. This Jetpack connection will then use that site’s connected primary address, while the WordPress.com sites will be connected to Jetpack and functioning under their default addresses instead.

Tip: The key part of the above process is remembering to not activate Jetpack on the new self-hosted site until you’ve switched the primary domain in the WordPress.com control panel. Doing so prevents Jetpack from getting confused once you activate it on your new site.