Something so simple shouldn't have so many gotcha's, but I found myself wishing that half the methods out there weren't overly written. Anyway, this problem stems from when you change the directory, url, or domain of WordPress. The official response to this issue has been less than satisfying and somewhat tedious. This method should work for any and all of the cases above without installing extra software.
1. Login to your Wordpress database server
A server could be on your local or external machine but note these steps depends on the database system. The command line for logging with MySQL is:
mysql -u <username> -h <host-url-of-server> -p
//Insert password2. UPDATE
If you are following along with MySQL then your query will look like this:
USE <wordpress-database>;
UPDATE wp_options SET option_value="<new-url>" WHERE option_name="siteurl";Conversely, you can view your current site address with
SELECT * FROM wp_options WHERE option_name="siteurl";.
Indeed, this method requires you to know your database login username/password, database name, and privileges
for the user modifying the url.
3. Login to the Admin-console
After executing the query, go to <new-wordpress-url>/wp-admin. Login and visit your Settings. Your WordPress Address should be your <new-url>. Complete the process by changing your Site Address to the same thing.
Afterword
The benefits of using this method are that it does not require Wordpress to be available at all and works as long as the database is Active. As well, this does not require phpMyAdmin nor editting any files in the wordpress directory.
Last updated: April 6th, 2016