I exported my database using phpmyadmin then imported to the prod. server.
I then FTPed the site.
May be you need to ensure that your prod. server has the same config as your local server; things like this
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
; Resource Limits ;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
max_execution_time = 300 ; Maximum execution time of each script, in seconds
max_input_time = 60 ; Maximum amount of time each script may spend parsing request data
memory_limit = 64M ; Maximum amount of memory a script may consume (8MB)
