Found that one should edit the backup.sql file and in a text editor do search for 'http://oldsite/' including the 'http:// in front and the trailing '/'. IF one did that then links generated by Moodle DB should work with ONE exception ... HTML blocks. If the link to this PDF was from an HTML block ... the URL's in HTML blocks have been 'obscured' (I believe that's the term I saw, but maybe not). If you look in the DB:
select * from `mdl_block_instances` where `blockname` like "html"
you'll see config_data column something like this (line below an example an truncated):
Tzo2OiJvYmplY3QiOjM6e3M6NToidGl0bGUiO3M6MTE6IldlYm1pbiB
That is magically converted into the text AND *URL's*, etc. one had in an HTML block.
Suggest rebuilding that block from scratch ... you can insert a new HTML block and build those links back to the PDF's located outside Moodle's file system.
Trouble uploading the moodledata zip might have played/will play a role in this ... might have to manually build 2 moodledata zips to get under the radar/issues with whatever panel that is - OR - move the site to a VPS and get command line access to it (more trustworthy means/methods then in xfering files).
'spirit of sharing', Ken